Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Croydon Council has officially moved to Bernard Weatherill House, marking a significant relocation aimed at improving operations and public services.
Next week, council tax will increase to all-time highs, and Katherine Kerswell, the chief executive officer, will now earn £204,000 at the financially stressed council.
At Fisher’s Folly, however, standards are still rapidly declining as Kerswell axes more positions in her push for a “Digital First” municipality.
The situation has gotten so bad that employees don’t even seem to know how to spell the name of the office building where they are expected to work.
As the first Speaker of the House of Commons in the televised age, Bernard Weatherill, a well-respected Conservative MP for a portion of the borough, gained national and worldwide recognition.
The public can no longer access in-person council services at Bernard Weatherill House because the council has switched to a “appointments-only” system. As a result, the public can no longer just come in to talk to council employees.
The fact that these problems are occurring when Council Tax is going up, the chief executive’s pay is going up, and the council is pursuing a “Digital First” strategy that doesn’t seem to be reflected in their own website updates or basic administrative correctness is highlighted by Inside Croydon.
The council chose to name the new glass palace on Cost You A Mint Walk after Jason Perry and his employer, Mike Fisher, overpaid by tens of millions.
Because Croydon council employees seem to be unable to accurately spell the name of their office building, it’s possible that too many people have come to know it as Fisher’s Folly. even on the council’s website and in official council correspondence.
Anyone requesting information through a Freedom of Information request about Croydon Council’s financial expenditures has been getting answers from a place claiming to be “Bernard Wetherill House” for a number of years.
The postcode and street are the same, however the spelling is different.
Responses to FOI requests have been sent out from the seventh story of a building that does not exist.
A cursory search of the WhatDoTheyKnow.com website (which is highly recommended for anyone who wishes to ask their council directly about critical matters like how many times their road has been swept in the last year) reveals “roughly 700” instances of the misspelling, going back to June 2023.
The council’s own website has an additional 136 instances.
Although we have identified one case on the website that dates back to 2019, it is impossible to pinpoint the exact date when these Wetherill misspellings first started to emerge.
It’s not as though the proper spelling wasn’t a constant reminder to those who work for the increasingly distant “Digital First” council. Along the building’s side, it is prominently displayed in letters that are two feet high.
Speaking of Kerswell’s efforts to force the council to avoid having to interact with people face-to-face, it doesn’t seem that the Croydon Digital team or communications, who are in charge of maintaining the council’s website, have been informed of the transition to an appointments-only No Access Croydon.
Almost three weeks after Kerswell cut off the homeless and vulnerable from speaking with council employees “in person” without an appointment, the council website still suggests that the public can contact their council “in person.”
What was the reason for Croydon Council’s decision to move to Bernard Weatherill House?
Constructed between 1964 and 1967, Taberner House was getting old and inefficient. After the council relocated to Bernard Weatherill House in 2014, it was demolished. Better working conditions and more environmentally friendly operations were provided by the new facility.
The Bernard Weatherill House was built with sustainability in mind, attempting to lower carbon emissions and energy use. It received a BREEAM rating, which is a UK norm for environmentally friendly structures.
Bernard Weatherill House is conveniently located on Mint Walk, making it simple for the public and municipal employees to get there. Better coordination and service delivery are made possible by this location.
The Croydon council was able to provide services more effectively because to the new building’s contemporary amenities and technology. This includes improved workstation designs and cutting-edge IT systems.