Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Croydon CEO Katherine Kerswell has not responded to a formal complaint regarding the high costs tied to the council’s ‘Our Croydon’ public engagement scheme.
The mayor and chief executive of the borough, who are becoming more and more distant and unaccountable, refuse to even react to letters from council taxpayers criticizing their misappropriation of tens of thousands of pounds of public funds. By Town Hall reporter Ken Lee.
In response to formal accusations last month over the misuse of public funds on Tory Mayor Jason Perry’s Our Croydon political propaganda leaflet, Katherine Kerswell, the £204,000-per-year chief executive, has not responded.
Earlier this week, Inside Croydon revealed that Perry’s financially constrained council has reduced services and laid off council employees while spending at least £35,000 of your money on his Our Croydon initiative, which was given to 170,000 families throughout the borough.
The next local elections are in a year, and Perry’s £84,000 elected post will be up for grabs. Perry is using the council’s publicity department and your money to cover up the flaws and pretend that he is somehow deserving of being re-elected despite raising the Council Tax by 27% since 2023.
The misappropriation of public funds for what is obviously political electioneering has angered opposition lawmakers.
Additionally, the public has now filed official complaints.
However, Kerswell, the chief executive, has disregarded the letter from a resident who pays council tax.
Nearly a month has passed since a reader sent the CEO an email.
“I am writing to you as CEO to complain about the content of the Our Croydon newsletter which I’ve received today,”
the resident said in their email.
“This newsletter amounts to an election communication from Jason Perry, the current Mayor, who has announced his intention to stand as Tory candidate in the next Croydon mayoral election in 12 months’ time.”
The resident drew attention to the 32-page publication’s extensive usage of Mayor Perry’s photos and “many quotes from him on various issues, some of which are politically contentious.” The nice way to phrase “lies” is “politically contentious.”
“There are also references to the Croydon mayoral election and a full-page article about postal votes in that election,”
they wrote.
“It is not right that Croydon Council Tax-payers should pay for this election propaganda on behalf of one candidate.”
Neither Kerswell nor her well staffed office have even offered the resident the courtesy of acknowledgement.
As a Freedom of Information request to the council has confirmed that Mayor Perry has abandoned his stated policy of holding public meetings at which he was subject to questions from residents (albeit very carefully chosen questions and questioners), the drafting, editing, design, printing, and distribution of Our Croydon represents a significant ramp up of public engagement – at great public expense – as we approach election year.
In its FoI answer, the council affirmed that Perry, who has stated that he hears the concerns of the people, has no intention of holding any Mayor’s Question Time events in 2025.
The most recent Mayor’s Question Time took place in South Croydon, the ward where Perry served as a councillor for 28 years prior to being elected Mayor of Croydon, in July of last year, following the General Election.
The cost of the newsletter is being incurred at a time when the council is reducing employment and services, and following a large 27% increase in the council tax since 2023, which has heightened criticism of the spending priorities.
Perry needed the assistance of four council employees after hours, and just 81 people bothered to register for the event.
Although Perry had stated that the Question Time events would take place throughout the entire borough, between January 2023 and July 2024, she really only made eight of Croydon’s twenty-eight wards.
According to the council’s FoI response, the events cost £980.43 in hall hire, leaflet printing, and other related expenses, but only 702 of Croydon’s nearly 400,000 residents bothered to register. The council also neglected to account for the number of hours council employees spent planning and attending the events.
This may help to explain why Perry is now running for reelection by stuffing Our Croydon into people’s letterboxes, all at your expense, without any public discussion or debate, and without any accountability, based on Kerswell’s unwillingness to respond.
What are the main criticisms against the Our Croydon newsletter?
The newsletter, which was issued to 170,000 households and cost at least £35,000, is accused of being political advertising for Mayor Jason Perry because it includes a lot of his remarks and photos on a variety of sometimes divisive topics.
The publication is being stepped up a year before the next mayoral election, which has drawn criticism that it is being used to raise the mayor’s profile at the expense of the public as he runs for reelection.
A full-page piece about postal voting, which locals claim amounts to taxpayer-funded electioneering for a single candidate, and references to the approaching Croydon mayoral election are included in the newsletter.
Concerns over openness at Croydon Council have been raised by the chief executive, Katherine Kerswell, failing to respond to formal complaints from citizens on the newsletter.