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Tag Archives: Jon Rouse
Council has been left ill-equipped to handle election logistics
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Round after round of redundancies at the council, going back more than a decade, may have led to the shambles of the election count, according to former senior council official ROD DAVIES Without a thorough and open review … Continue reading
Kerswell in two-horse race for £192,000 council CEO job
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council’s search for new leadership has not gone very far, nor very wide. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES When the panel convenes next week to interview for the £192,474 post of council chief executive, they will see … Continue reading
The ins and outs of quietly getting rid of a council CEO
Did she jump or was she pushed? Our employment law correspondent, PERRY FREEMASON, delves into the murky world of human resources at Fisher’s Folly to sift through another expensive mess at the council Morale among staff inside Fisher’s Folly is … Continue reading
Posted in Bernard Weatherill House, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Jon Rouse, Nathan Elvery, Tony Newman
Tagged Bernard Weatherill House, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, David Wechsler, Fisher's Folly, Jo Negrini, Jon Rouse, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Nathan Elvery, Tony Newman, Tory
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Council’s £140m offices are to become a glorified Job Centre
WALTER CRONXITE on how the local council has been forced to take in more lodgers in its “prestige” £140m office building Tonight’s council cabinet meeting at the Town Hall is unlikely to uncover quite how the costs of building the … Continue reading
Bonar back-tracks over closure after latest fire safety visit
Saif Bonar, the “founder” of Matthew’s Yard coffee shop off Surrey Street, has backed down from his public threat to close up the property’s workspace and end his work on that part of the building. Bonar had made his threat … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Croydon Radio, Fairfield, Property, Pubs, Surrey Street, Theatre
Tagged Conservative, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Fairfield, Jon Rouse, Mario Creatura, Matthews Yard, Saif Bonar, Tory
11 Comments
Coulsdon is thrown a CCURV ball: but who is responsible?
CROYDON COMMENTARY: The collapse of the CCURV Coulsdon supermarket project, as we reported yesterday, is a worrying sign about our local authority’s ability to handle development schemes, warns DAVID WICKENS The £25-million “Bridge to Nowhere” at East Croydon broke one … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Coulsdon Town, Coulsdon West Residents' Association, Croydon Council, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Jo Negrini, Nathan Elvery, Old Coulsdon Residents' Association, URV, Whitgift Centre
Tagged CCURV, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, Hammerson, Jo Negrini, Jon Rouse, Nathan Elvery, Westfield
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Up to 600 Town Hall jobs at risk in latest council redundancies
Croydon Council yesterday launched another round of voluntary redundancies, as it tries to balance the Town Hall budget from a £3.5 million overspend. Some estimates suggest as many as 600 more council jobs may need to go. The budget short-fall … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, Nathan Elvery, Tony Newman
Tagged Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Nathan Elvery, Tony Newman
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Derby day can offer chance for local bragging rights
BRIAN GRANVILLE, the doyen of non-league football writers, looks forward to a crunch clash at Mayfield Road, when both sets of fans will be chanting “Croydon” There’s more than a hint that someone in what passes for a “boardroom” or … Continue reading
Croydon council offices cost more to build than The Shard
Fisher’s Folly, the glass palace that is our council’s headquarters which opened just over a year ago and which cost the borough’s Council Tax-payers’ £144 million, was more expensive to build than The Shard. That’s the conclusion reached by a … Continue reading
Posted in Bernard Weatherill House, Business, Croydon Council, Housing, Jon Rouse, Leisure services, Mike Fisher, Nathan Elvery, Planning, Property, Taberner House, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, URV
Tagged Bernard Weatherill House, CCURV, Conservative, Croydon Council, Fisher's Folly, John Laing, Jon Rouse, Labour, Mike Fisher, Nathan Elvery, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, Tory, URV
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15 Croydon Council employees receive total salaries of £1.8m
Croydon Council spent £1,833,846 on the salaries and pension contributions of just 15 executive staff members in 2012-2013, according to figures published by the TaxPayers’ Alliance. Averaged out – and one or two individuals were trousering considerably more than the … Continue reading
Posted in Council Tax, Croydon Council, Hannah Miller, Jon Rouse, Julie Belvir, Nathan Elvery, Paul Spooner, Planning
Tagged Bernard Weatherill House, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fisher's Folly, Jo Negrini, Jon Rouse, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Nathan Elvery, Taberner House
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Council claims that conduct of elections is a ‘private matter’
Croydon Council has been breaking the law to keep some details of its senior appointments secret, and it is refusing to reveal details of the new chief executive’s work in his role as the returning officer for the recent local … Continue reading
Posted in 2014 council elections, Capita, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Jon Rouse, Julie Belvir, Nathan Elvery, Tony Newman
Tagged Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fisher's Folly, Jon Rouse, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Nathan Elvery, Taberner House, Tony Newman, Tory, Whitgift Foundation
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At £220m, is Fisher’s Folly the most costly council HQ ever?
According to figures presented at last night’s Croydon Council cabinet meeting, Fisher’s Folly, the new council office building which some people insist on calling Bernard Weatherill House, will cost Council Tax-payers a scandalous £85 million more than even the gloomiest multi-million-pound … Continue reading
Council’s culture clash leaves truth and fairness as casualties
This week, Inside Croydon has highlighted the party political interference going on at the council headquarters during what is supposed to be a period of election purdah, apparently to benefit of the ruling Conservative group. It is symptomatic of the … Continue reading
Council to get glitzy slap on the back from its contractors again
The leadership at Croydon Council – motto “Proud to Swerve” – has so little to celebrate in its mismanagement of the borough that it all-too-often goes out of its way to boast about often bogus accolades. Inside Croydon has highlighted … Continue reading
Croydon Council recruits new CEO – with event for teenagers
Jon Rouse has left the building. The chief executive officer at Croydon Council since 2007 has worked his final day in Taberner House, having cleared his desk and using some untaken annual holiday before he moves on, with a £100,000 … Continue reading
Croydon, Christmas 2012: council’s foodbank appeal
The following internal message, sent by Croydon Council‘s chief executive Jon Rouse to all staff last Thursday, shows just how difficult life has become for many local residents, including some of the thousands of people who have lost their jobs … Continue reading
Posted in Charity, Croydon Council, Jon Rouse
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, England, Jon Rouse, Labour, London, London Borough of Croydon, Rouse
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Croydon awards £30m library deal to most expensive bidder
Croydon’s Conservative-run council will announce next week that it has decided to award an eight year contract, estimated to be worth £30 million, to run the borough’s libraries to the company which finished bottom in a competitive tendering process. It … Continue reading
Hammerson: Handsome half-year figures and takeover talk
As previously suggested by Inside Croydon, Hammerson, the owner of Centrale and potential developers of the Whitgift Centre, is a takeover target for other developers – including their Whitgift rivals, Westfield. The takeover talk emerged from Australia in May, according … Continue reading
Posted in Allders, Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, Planning, Property, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Jon Rouse, Purley Way, Ruskin Square, West Croydon station, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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Council staff’s special offer: a course on going self-employed
Despite the exciting prospect of nearly £1 million-worth of new furniture in the shiny new glass palace of council HQ that is leaning over the flyover, those members of council staff who have survived the cuts so far are finding … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Charity, Croydon Council, Eddy Arram, Jon Rouse
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, London Borough of Croydon, Mary Portas, Mayor
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Croydon in Crisis: Mystery over council’s £350,000 pay-offs
The public service workers’ union, the GMB, was tonight demanding an urgent independent investigation into why Croydon Council had spent a “profligate” £350,000 of public money on golden handshakes to four top-level employees in the past year. The payments have … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, Planning, Stephen McDonald
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, Employment, GMB, Jon Rouse, London Borough of Croydon, McDonald, Taberner House
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The £248,000 CEO speaks: Six pages of councilspeak
The latest morale-boosting memo from Jon Rouse, Croydon Council’s £248,000 per year chief executive, reaches Inside Croydon Towers this morning directly from the Planning and Environment department on Taberner House’s seventh floor. The six pages (no attempt at brevity) is … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Council, Jon Rouse
Tagged Consultant, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, London Borough of Croydon, Rouse, Taberner House
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£20 million: Croydon’s planned spend on consultants this year
Croydon Council is to spend £20 million this year on interim staff and consultants – therefore repeating the massive outlay of Council Tax-payers’ cash to highly paid short-term hires and outside companies in 2011. Inside Croydon has obtained a council … Continue reading
More on procurement: Croydon’s “urgent” £500,000 contract
Let’s hope that Bernard Weatherill House, the monument to delusion at Croydon Council, at the centre of their £450 million urban regeneration scheme, will have revolving doors. Because no sooner does Chief Exec Jon Rouse and his lacky, Nathan Elvery, … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, Nathan Elvery, URV
Tagged Cannes, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Human Resources, Jon Rouse, London Borough of Croydon, Nathan Elvery
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“Procurement” or how Croydon recruits while axing staff
There’s a recession on, isn’t there, with jobs and council services being cut across the board? Not in Conservative-controlled Croydon, where a dedicated website is being used to recruit 10 staff in management roles for one department, most of the … Continue reading
Latest Cannes trip gets Rouse his moment in The Sun
Maybe openness, transparency and accountability to public scrutiny does work. Since Inside Croydon was launched nearly two years ago, we have often returned to the council’s spending on its annual jolly to the South of France for £248,000 per year … Continue reading
