Category: Croydon Council

Press Release – CROYDON CONSTITUTIONALISTS TEAM UP WITH TAXPAYERS’ ALLIANCE TO SHINE A LIGHT ON WASTEFUL COUNCIL SPENDING

TPA Town Hall Rich List reveals massive 6 figure salaries paid to fat cats at Croydon council.

Despite a bumper salary of £212,000 for the Chief Executive we still have an ’Inadequate’ Children’s Services department, a Westfield Shopping centre development going nowhere and ongoing bin collection problems in Croydon.

Croydon Council has been a calamity in recent years, but even more shocking we pay a king’s ransom for senior staff that often hinder rather than help the front line.

That’s not just our view that’s the feedback we’ve had from the two Road Shows the TaxPayers’ Alliance held in Croydon (https://croydonconstitutionalists.uk/the-taxpayers-alliance-town-hall-rich-list-roadshow-croydon/) and Addiscombe (https://croydonconstitutionalists.uk/the-taxpayers-alliance-town-hall-rich-list-roadshow-in-addiscombe-saturday-13th-july/).  So overwhelmed by the feedback the TaxPayers’ Alliance are holding a third stall in the borough.  This time in Selsdon on Saturday 7th September, between 10:30am and 1pm.

“Many locals are outraged that council bosses are receiving six-figure pay packets whilst front line services are in disarray. Council tax rose by four per cent last year and many will wonder where taxpayers’ money has gone. Spending on council fat cats needs to be brought under control immediately.”

Harry Fone the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s Grassroots Campaign Manager. 

In Selsdon we will be asking people to sign an open letter to the leaders of all political parties in Croydon, asking them to agree in future that no newly appointed council employee will earn more than the Prime Minister.  We have made contracts with those already in post, but surely we can all agree, with all its challenges running Croydon shouldn’t pay more than running Britain.

Members of the Croydon Constitutionalists and TaxPayers’ Alliance’s staff will be available for interviews and photo ops on the day.”

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Michael Swadling or email at [email protected].

Full Press ReleaseDownload
Letter to local political partiesDownload

The TaxPayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List Roadshow in Addiscombe – Saturday 13th July.

Croydon Council taxpayers were rightly surprised that 19 staff in the council are paid over £100,000, especially when compared to the service we receive. 

We spread the word at The TaxPayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List Roadshow in Addiscombe on Saturday 13th July.  Photos and Video from the day below.

Press Release – TAXPAYERS’ ALLIANCE TOWN HALL RICH LIST ROADSHOW – CROYDON

The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) are focusing on Croydon as part of their Town Hall Rich List Roadshow.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign for lower taxes and against government waste.  Focus on value for money in public finances is something we desperately need in Croydon.

So good was the response to the street stall, we held on the 22nd June we plan to hold two more over the summer.

Croydon taxpayers are rightly surprised that 19 staff in the council are paid over £100,000, especially when compared to the service we receive. 

You might wonder with all these highly paid staff and councillors, if someone might have had the time to provide some scrutiny over the £10,000 of taxpayer money given to an ‘entertainer’ to defecate on stage.  Meanwhile Croydon’s Children’s Services Department is still rated Inadequate by Ofsted.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List Roadshow street stalls will be in Addiscombe on Saturday 13th July and Selsdon on Saturday 7th September, both between 10:30am and 1pm.

If you’re interested in knowing more about tax in Croydon, their national campaigns, or covering the stall, contact the Croydon Constitutionalists or come and see the TaxPayers’ Alliance Roadshow in Addiscombe on the 13th July.

PressRelease-TPA07July_webDownload

Croydon’s Cultural Growth Fund and Community Ward Budgets

Croydon Council is obliged to publish details on all payments made over £500.  The figures make interesting reading.  We’ve reviewed the spending from the Cultural Growth Fund and Councillors Community Ward Budgets for the years 2017, 2018 and Jan-Apr 2019.

You may be interested with some of the findings below.

2018 Highlights

  • The Residents Association in Sanderstead one of the richest parts of the borough received £18K in council funding.
  • We rouse up and paid the Rise Gallery £9,600 from one fund and a further £4,370 from another.
  • Given the level of violent crime in Croydon we’re not sure the £9,500 on a Peace Festival was money well spent.
  • The £5,000 spent at the Oval Tavern was an expensive round.
  • Remarkably no one seems to know what the £51,000 paid to the Remarkable Productions Company Ltd got us.
  • At £5 a pint and £7-8 for lunch it’s not clear how the £160,000 paid to Boxpark benefited the working class council tax payers who helped fund it.

Meanwhile, Croydon Council spends only about £200,000 a year fixing potholes.

So far this year

  • Boxpark has had to struggle by on £40K.
  • We all ‘Love Norbury’, and apparently we love it to the tune of £12,296.80.
  • The ‘CROYDONITES FESTIVAL OF NEW THEATRE’ which puts on a number of political plays (see https://www.croydonites.com/programme-for-2019.html) has received £7.5K of our ‘netural’ taxpayers’ cash.

Cultural Growth Fund – Top 5s

Top 5 payees receiving funding from our council tax.

Vendor Name SumOfAmount 2017
Boxpark   £160,000.00 1
Turf Projects   £38,777.01 2
Kier Highways Ltd   £28,227.73 3
Remarkable Productions Company Ltd   £22,000.00 4
Croydon Town Centre Bid   £18,500.00 5
Vendor Name SumOfAmount 2018
Boxpark   £160,000.00 1
Remarkable Productions Company Ltd   £51,000.00 2
Croydon Pride Ltd   £35,000.00 3
We Made That   £29,996.72 4
Turf Projects   £20,000.00 5
Vendor Name SumOfAmount 2019
Boxpark   £40,000.00 1
Croydon Pride Ltd £30,000.00 2
Cellar Door Promotions Ltd £22,800.00 3
Croydon with Talent Ltd   £20,000.00 4
London & Partners Ventures Ltd £20,000.00 5

Community Ward Budgets – Top 5s

Top 5 payees receiving funding from our council tax.

Vendor Name SumOfAmount 2017
Thornton Heath Community ActionTeam   £20,550.00 1
Redacted £13,871.00 2
People for Portland Road   £12,570.00 3
Topcare Network   £12,000.00 4
Croydon Pride Ltd   £11,250.00 5
Vendor Name SumOfAmount 2018
Sanderstead Residents Association   £18,167.00 1
People for Portland Road   £17,000.00 2
CROYDON BOROUGH NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH ASSOCIATION   £10,500.00 3
Cacfo Education Centre   £10,190.73 4
Rise Gallery   £9,600.00 5
Vendor Name SumOfAmount 2019
The Chartwell Cancer Trust Ltd   £30,192.00 1
LOVE NORBURY   £12,296.80 2
Purley Youth Project   £7,000.00 3
Stanley People’s Initiative   £6,736.01 4
SOUTH NORWOOD COMMUNITY FESTIVAL GROUP   £5,500.00 5

TaxPayers’ Alliance Street Stalls

So good was the response to the street stall, we plan to hold two more over the summer.  Croydon taxpayers are rightly surprised that 19 staff in the council are paid over £100,000, especially when compared to the service we receive. 

Come and help us spread the word at the following street stalls:

The TaxPayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List Roadshow Croydon

On Saturday 22nd June The TaxPayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List Roadshow came to Croydon.

We highlighted excessive executive pay at Croydon Town Hall.  This includes:

Great response from people shocked at how much we pay for how little we get.

Photos and Video from the day below.

Press Release – TAXPAYERS’ ALLIANCE ROADSHOW – CROYDON 22ND JUNE

The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) are coming to Croydon on Saturday 22nd June as part of their Town Hall Rich List Roadshow.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign for lower taxes and against government waste. Focus on value for money in public finances is something we desperately need in Croydon.

The average council tax bill has gone up by more than £900 in the last 20 years and spending has gone through the roof. Councils are trying to plug their financial blackholes through tax rises and cuts to public services, rather than scaling back the pay packets of council staff.

  • In 2017-18 The Chief Executive of Croydon Council had a total remuneration package of £185,000.
  • Croydon Council has 19 staff paid over £100,000?
  • We have some of the highest paid councillors in London who last year voted themselves a 2% pay rise for backbenchers and 4.4% for the front bench.
  • To pay for all this Croydon’s Council Tax increased 4.88% this year.

You might wonder with all these highly paid staff and councillors, if someone might have had the time to provide some scrutiny over the £10,000 of taxpayer money given to an ‘entertainer’ to defecate on stage. Meanwhile Croydon’s Children’s Services Department is still rated Inadequate by Ofsted.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List Roadshow street stall will be in Croydon on Saturday 22nd June, between 11am and 2pm.

If you’re interested in knowing more about tax in Croydon, their national campaigns, or covering the stall, contact the Croydon Constitutionalists or come and see the TaxPayers’ Alliance Roadshow in Croydon on the 22nd June.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Michael Swadling at [email protected].

PressRelease-TPA22JuneWebDownload

TaxPayers’ Alliance Croydon Street Stall – Saturday 22nd June

Concerned about value for money from your council tax and wonder if Croydon needs 19 staff paid over £100,000?

Wonder if they fully scrutinised the £10,000 paid for someone to defecate on stage?

Wonder if some of the highest paid councillors in London are representing us with their ever rising council tax bills?

If you share these concerns, come and join us with the TaxPayers’ Alliance at our street stall on Saturday 22nd June , 11am – 2pm on the corner of George Street and North End, Croydon. 

TPA Event – https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/2019_town_hall_rich_list_roadshow_croydon

Croydon – For the driveway few not the terrace many

Croydon Council has started a consultation on its new residents parking strategy.   They are proposing to introduce emission-based charges for resident and business parking permits, to all controlled parking permit zones within the borough.

Under the proposals electric car owners would pay only £6.50 for an annual resident’s parking permit.  However any cars made before 2001 would see residents pay £300 a year compared to the current resident’s permit of £80.

These ‘green’ proposals would see the poorest in the borough punished for not being able to afford new cars, and punished for not being able to afford off street parking in the London property market.  This comes on top of another 5% council tax increase, paying for some of London’s most expensive councillors and their weekend entertainment.  It’s not even clear that scraping old cars for new is environmentally friendly.

If these proposals are accepted, hardworking families will face extra financial pressure for residents’ parking permits. Cars are often needed to drop young children off at school, before carrying on the work to pay rent or a mortgage on small properties that can be worth 10 times the average income of the area.  Of course this problem disappears for the owners of larger properties with their own off street parking.

We are asking Croydon residents to object to the proposal on the online survey, and help keep residents’ parking affordable.  Further details are available at https://getinvolved.croydon.gov.uk/project/566 with the survey at https://getinvolved.croydon.gov.uk/kms/elab.aspx?CampaignId=857&noip=1. The survey runs until midnight, Thursday 20 June.

Are Croydon trying to gentrify out the working class from the borough?  Who knows.  We do however know Croydon Council is once again acting for the few not the many.

Croydon Constitutionalists  

Croydon Council Rich List

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has published another update to their excellent Town Hall Rich List of council employees receiving a remuneration in excess of £100,000.

Full details at https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/12_years_of_town_hall_rich_lists.

Details for Croydon below:

NameJob titleSalaryPensionTotal
Jo
Negrini		Chief Executive185,00027,935£212,935
Barbara
Peacock		Executive Director, People168,08825,368£193,456
Richard
Simpson		Executive, Corporate
Resources and
Section 151 Officer. 		153,08523,103£176,188
Shifa
Mustafa		Executive Director – Place153,00021,178£174,178
 undisclosed 137,500 £137,500
 undisclosed 132,500 £132,500
 undisclosed 127,500 £127,500
 undisclosed 127,500 £127,500
 undisclosed 117,500 £117,500
 undisclosed 117,500 £117,500
Julian
Ellerby		Director, Strategy
and Partnerships		108,82816,433£125,261
 undisclosed 107,500 £107,500
 undisclosed 107,500 £107,500
 undisclosed 107,500 £107,500
 undisclosed 107,500 £107,500
 undisclosed 107,500 £107,500
 undisclosed 107,500 £107,500
 undisclosed 107,500 £107,500
Jacqueline
Harris
Baker		Director of Law
and
Minitoring Officer		104,16815,729£119,897