Category Archives: Alasdair Stewart

Council chief made mates’ rates payments at £726 per hour

Lack of proper governance over payments and ‘interims’ working at the council for up to five years raise further questions over ‘runaway’ spending for chief exec Kerswell and Mayor Jason Perry. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Croydon Council’s chief executive Katherine … Continue reading

Posted in 'Future Croydon', Alasdair Stewart, Business, Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Dean Shoesmith, General Purposes and Audit Committee, Improvement Board, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Interim Adam gets council job as HMRC winds up his company

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council’s most recently appointed planning director was given the role while a company where he was sole director was being wound up in the High Court, an iC investigation has found. EXCLUSIVE by KEN LEE, Town … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Adam Wilkinson, Alasdair Stewart, Brick by Brick, Business, Council Tax, CPO, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Jason Cummings, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

For planner Cheesbrough, budget increase is ‘non-negotiable’

CROYDON IN CRISIS: All those public consultations that don’t ever make any difference to what the council sets out to do? This week, one director made it clear that they are indeed pointless exercises, as KEN LEE reports Croydon Council … Continue reading

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, Business, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Karen Agbabiaka, Louis Carserides, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Directors leave scrutiny short of answers over council job cuts

KEN LEE reports from the frontline of budget discussions at the cash-strapped council, after a meeting where everyone is working very, very hard, but no one in charge bothered to turn up equipped to provide any answers  Councillors from both … Continue reading

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Karen Agbabiaka, Kristian Aspinall, Libraries, Louis Carserides, Scott Roche, Stella Nabukeera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Perry presides over late-running, unapologetic leaders meet

While Labour members were drooling/raging (delete to taste) over their rapidly discredited leadership’s performances at their annual conference in Liverpool this week, Croydon’s Conservatives were gathering to hear from their wannabe new leader. And it is fair to say that … Continue reading

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Samir Dwesar | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Perry stages scrutiny stitch-up to dodge the tough questions

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Halfway through his term of office, and the executive Mayor has broken cross-party understandings to dodge scrutiny – appointing a climate crisis sceptic to chair the council’s environment scrutiny committee. WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, reports It took … Continue reading

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, Andrew Price, Croydon Council, Croydon Greens, Environment, Park Hill and Whitgift, Richard Chatterjee | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Kerrr-ching! Unsuspecting drivers hit with no-notice £190 fines

Croydon Council has been accused of “corruption”, as dozens, perhaps hundreds, of residents have been issued with demands for £190 for driving offences after failing to pay the original £65 Penalty Charge Notice – which they never received. Some suspect … Continue reading

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, Croydon Council, Parking, Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Time to end cash-strapped council’s £1.5m political subsidies

CROYDON IN CRISIS: There’s cuts planned to all kinds of services in the borough in the coming months. The only thing local politicians aren’t planning to cut-back on are their own jobs, as WALTER CRONXITE reports The holidays are over. … Continue reading

Posted in 2024 General Election, Alasdair Stewart, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon West, Endri Llabuti, Esther Sutton, Jade Appleton, Karen Jewitt, Mario Creatura, Matt Griffiths, Mayor Jason Perry, Park Hill and Whitgift, Simon Fox, Stuart Collins, Thornton Heath | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Councillor’s complaint sees Fairfield Halls drop mix-sex loos

Within a week of a Conservative councillor grumbling on social media about the “awful misogyny” of having mixed-sex signs on toilet doors at the Fairfield Halls, the management at the arts venue has abandoned the idea and removed the offending … Continue reading

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, BH Live, Fairfield Halls, Restaurants | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments