Tag Archives: Eric Pickles
99% councils miss accounts deadline in ‘public admin disaster’
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Only 101 people in the country are qualified to carry out essential audit work on public bodies, the lack of proper scrutiny putting £100bn of public spending at risk according to a report from a Commons committee … Continue reading
Croydon is in a right Pickles and it is easy to work out why
Thurrock, Warrington, Nottingham, Slough, Liverpool, Sandwell… Croydon is far from alone among basket-case boroughs. ANDREW FISHER traces the common cause back to Whitehall Pay more, get less. That seems to have been the message from many councils across the country … Continue reading
Factsheet and Twitter: Gove’s answer to council housing crisis
Measures to improve the state of social housing and to guarantee tenants a decent place to live have been announced this morning by the government – 15 years after similar proposals were first agreed. Michael Gove, as the Levelling Up … Continue reading
Proud to have been trusted to improve borough’s future
THE FIRST 100 DAYS: Labour took charge of Croydon Town Hall for the first time in a decade 100 days ago today. Elected as a councillor for the first time was HAMIDA ALI, pictured, who here outlines her early experiences … Continue reading
Pickles to order Croydon to return to weekly collections
Tory Eric Pickles and his ConDem government could be about to hand a significant political present to Croydon’s new Labour-run council, by forcing them to bring back weekly bin collections. Labour won control of Croydon Town Hall a month ago … Continue reading
Croydon’s £40m Council Tax arrears make headlines again
Croydon’s Conservative-run council’s failure to collect more than £40 million-worth of Council Tax made it on to the pages of the Daily Wail and The Stun at the weekend, something which, with local elections coming, will have done nothing for … Continue reading
New law to force Croydon to open up its council meetings
Croydon Council is to be forced by law to allow the public to record Town Hall meetings, in audio and video, and to Tweet and live blog from Katharine Street without their data being routed through the council’s wi-fi. Eric … Continue reading
Portas Pilot has been a flop, admits scheme’s ex-chair
The Portas Pilot project, intended to revive business in Croydon’s ancient Surrey Street Market, has been a failure. That’s effectively the admission of Mary Portas, Prime Minister David Cameron’s “retail guru” and self-proclaimed “Queen of the High Street”. It is … Continue reading
Spendthrift council forks out £176,000 on sound system
Next week, thousands of Croydon children will make their ways to their schools at the start of the new term without the reassuring assistance of a “school crossing patrol officer” – a lollipop lady or man in old-fashioned, ordinary English … Continue reading
Croydon’s secret tax on car parking that divides the borough
CROYDON COMMENTARY: For a town that has built itself around the demands of the motor car, parking the vehicles is an ever-growing problem, and Croydon Council has yet to find the right, or fair, way of dealing with it, CHARLOTTE … Continue reading
Coulsdon residents complain over dangers of CURV scheme
It seems that Croydon Council’s strategy of ignoring the interests of local residents and businesses, and instead acting at the bidding of big business, has now been extended to the leafy, largely Conservative-supporting suburbs of Coulsdon. Croydon’s Urban Regeneration Vehicle … Continue reading
Council CEO runs up £657 bill for posh nosh meal
Cut-backs at Croydon Council continue – to road cleaning services, to the lollipop ladies outside our schools, in the flogging off of uninsured public art collections and to a wide range of public services – but not, it would appear, … Continue reading
Attention-seeking mayor deserves the Advertiser’s criticism
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Eddy Arram, presiding over a full council meeting for the last time, this week managed to do something which many believed was impossible: getting the editors of Inside Croydon and the Croydon Sadvertiser to agree, at least on … Continue reading
Croydon is officially the worst English borough on Council Tax
It is official, because according to Eric Pickles, the Conservative Cabinet minister in charge of local government, Conservative-run Croydon has the worst record among boroughs in England for managing its own Council Tax. There are 326 local authority councils in … Continue reading
Planning conflicts of interest? In Croydon? Don’t be silly
The Daily Torygraph, that bastion of left-wing revolutionaries, yesterday ran a fascinating report on how some councillors had been abusing their position within local authority planning committees to line their own pockets. Or purses. Shock! Horror! This, of course, would … Continue reading
Croydon in a Pickles once more over £50,000 regeneration jobs
Croydon’s Conservative-run council is in the bad books of the Conservative local government minister, “Big” Eric Pickles. Again. Big Eric sometimes appears to be a very reasonable sort of bloke. For instance, he cannot understand how Croydon can be cutting … Continue reading
Steve Reed MP: Residents’ pockets picked by wasteful council
In his exclusive Inside Croydon column, the local Labour MP condemns the Conservative-run borough council for raising Council Tax after mismanaging the borough The country is facing a triple-dip recession. Household budgets in Croydon are under pressure with rising fuel … Continue reading
Council takes four tables at awards – against Pickles’ advice
Around 40 Conservative councillors, senior Croydon Council officials and their chums will be attending the annual binge of champagne-swilling and back-slapping at a five-star West End hotel next month that is the Local Government Chronicle Awards, all at a cost … Continue reading
1.85%: Croydon in a Pickles over Council Tax hike
Mike Fisher, the leader of the Conservative group that tries to run Croydon Council, tonight raised the white flag at the Town Hall when – at the latest possible moment on a Friday evening just before half-term week – he … Continue reading
“Corruption of punishment” coming to Croydon high streets
As our council redoubles its efforts to make shopping in central Croydon an increasingly unattractive experience, the Town Hall is poised to hire a private police force that will, if experience elsewhere is a guide, go to great money-grubbing lengths … Continue reading
Council’s Ministry of Truth spends record amounts on staff
Hayley Lewis, the trained psychologist who Croydon employs as its “Head of customer communications and strategy”, once suggested that a council communications department is “an unnecessary burden”. How prescient. On her personal blog, Lewis added a convenient “?” to present … Continue reading
Town Hall protest over council’s £10m cuts to adult social care
Campaigners against cuts in services to the disabled are expected to protest outside Croydon Town Hall from 5.30pm, ahead of tonight’s council meeting. Croydon’s Conservative-run council wants to take another £10 million from the budget for adult social care. This … Continue reading
