The TaxPayers’ Alliance’s annual Town Hall Rich List has been released. You can read it in full here. This shows council employees who received total remuneration in excess of £100,000. The latest is 226 more people than in 2017-18, and the highest number since 2013-14.
Councils talk of austerity and keep ramping up council tax rises. In Croydon the report shows we have 23 people who earned over £100,000 last year and 3 who earned more than the Prime Minister. This is up from the 19 people who earned over £100K the previous year. The London Borough of Barnet, which is about the same size as Croydon makes do with just 7 staff on over £100K and only 1 earning more than the Prime Minister. Neighbouring us, Sutton has just 11, Merton 9, Lambeth 16, Bromley 20, Tandridge 1, and Reigate and Banstead 4, on more than £100K. All below Croydon. Details of those employees earning over £100K are below.
| Name | Job title | Salary | Compensation for loss of office | Sub total | Pension | Total |
| Jo Negrini | Chief Executive | £188,700 | £188,700 | £28,494 | £217,194 | |
| Guy Van Dichele | Executive Director (Interim) of Health, Wellbeing & Adults | £215,444 | £215,444 | £ – | £215,444 | |
| Undisclosed | £202,500 | £202,500 | £202,500 | |||
| Shifa Mustafa | Executive Director, Place | £153,000 | £153,000 | £23,103 | £176,103 | |
| Richard Simpson | Executive Director of Resources and Section 151 officer | £143,892 | £143,892 | £21,550 | £165,442 | |
| Undisclosed | £152,500 | £152,500 | £152,500 | |||
| Eleni Loannides | Executive Director (Interim) Children, Families and Education | £150,000 | £150,000 | £ – | £150,000 | |
| Undisclosed | £142,500 | £142,500 | £142,500 | |||
| Jacqueline Harris-Baker | Director of Law and Monitoring Officer/Executive Director of Resources and Monitoring Officer | £120,080 | £120,080 | £18,132 | £138,212 | |
| Undisclosed | £127,500 | £127,500 | £127,500 | |||
| Barbara Peacock | Executive Director, People | £ 67,837 | £ 53,808 | £121,645 | £4,228 | £125,873 |
| Undisclosed | £122,500 | £122,500 | £122,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £122,500 | £122,500 | £122,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £117,500 | £117,500 | £117,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £107,500 | £107,500 | £107,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £107,500 | £107,500 | £107,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £107,500 | £107,500 | £107,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £107,500 | £107,500 | £107,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £107,500 | £107,500 | £107,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £102,500 | £102,500 | £102,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £102,500 | £102,500 | £102,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £102,500 | £102,500 | £102,500 | |||
| Undisclosed | £102,500 | £102,500 | £102,500 |
If the council isn’t splashing the cash on high paid executives they are spending it on cultural events and local community groups. Many of these are good causes some less so. The council publishes their spending over £500. We’ve reviewed the spend in 2019 and found some particular lowlights like the £105,666 spent on Consultancy Fees for a cost called ‘Brick by Brick Overheads and Admin’. It total £333,364 was dished out by local councillors in 2019 in amounts over £500 as part of their Community Ward Budgets. Much of this goes to local residents’ associations and clubs, many very worthy, but are these the core services we pay our Council Tax for?
We don’t think you should pay for our weekends, or for that matter we should pay for yours. We like Croydon’s Pride event, Mike of this parish has attended all of them. He would like to thank you for subsidising his day out, but would rather you hadn’t been forced to. In 2019 a total of £59,360 was paid out to Croydon Pride between Community Ward Budgets and the Culture Growth Fund, a huge amount of money for this 1 day event! The Culture Growth Fund payments over £500 totalled £754,669 of which, £160,000 went to pay for the expensively priced Boxpark, and Dance Umbrella (no we hadn’t heard of them either) received £29,000 of your taxes. Croydon with Talent Ltd received £20,000 and once again The Oval Tavern received £5,000 for we assume a very expensive round. Details below.
CULTURE GROWTH FUND
| Vendor Name | Amount |
| Boxpark | £160,000 |
| Think Events (London) Ltd | £63,000 |
| Croydon Pride Ltd | £54,000 |
| A Fairweather – Fairweather Productions | £33,000 |
| Dance Umbrella | £29,000 |
| BH Live | £26,832 |
| Cellar Door Promotions Ltd | £24,550 |
| Redacted | £23,075 |
| Croydon with Talent Ltd | £20,000 |
| London & Partners Ventures Ltd | £20,000 |
| Scanners Inc | £20,000 |
| Gowling WLG (UK) LLP | £19,044 |
| Sam-Culture Ltd | £18,750 |
| The Brit School | £17,500 |
| Turf Projects_ | £16,768 |
| Redacted | £14,235 |
| Beeja | £10,000 |
| Sound Diplomacy Limited | £10,000 |
| 31 Percent Wool/Croydonist | £8,000 |
| CROYDONITES FESTIVAL OF NEW THEATRE | £7,500 |
| Syrus Consultancy CIC | £7,500 |
| Good Wolf People Ltd | £7,500 |
| Croydon Voluntary Action | £7,500 |
| New Addington Peoples Carnival_ | £7,500 |
| Drunken Chorus Arts Collective | £7,500 |
| London Mozart Players | £7,500 |
| Kinetika Bloco Ltd | £7,200 |
| White Hut Studios | £7,000 |
| Slide Dance | £6,450 |
| Play for Progress | £5,830 |
| WSP UK Ltd | £5,500 |
| Rap Club Productions C.I.C. | £5,445 |
| Alasdair Brown | £5,018 |
| The Oval Tavern | £5,000 |
| Emergency Exit Arts | £5,000 |
| Gifted Enterprise C.I.C | £5,000 |
| Gye Nyame Development Foundation | £5,000 |
| Crystal Palace Festival Group | £4,684 |
| Open City Architecture | £4,400 |
| Artist Studio Company | £4,063 |
| Zoo Co Outreach | £4,000 |
| South Norwood Community Festival | £3,750 |
| Drum the Bass | £3,750 |
| Matthews Yard Croydon Ltd | £3,580 |
| Advice Support Knowledge Information | £3,500 |
| Cellar Door Promotions Ltd | £2,800 |
| Crisis UK | £2,582 |
| Subrang Arts | £2,500 |
| Tour Design Limited | £1,500 |
| FMM Pop Up | £1,450 |
| Made in Croydon | £1,293 |
| Reaching Higher | £1,243 |
| Fergus Ford Photography | £1,100 |
| Croydon Town Centre Bid | £1,000 |
| Well Versed Ink CIC | £1,000 |
| FMM Pop Up | £870 |
| Conditions Studio Programme | £828 |
| Turf Projects | £780 |
| Amplified Theatre | £750 |
| Red Quadrant | £550 |
| Total | £754,669 |
COMMUNITY WARD BUDGETS
| Vendor Name | Amount |
| The Chartwell Cancer Trust Ltd | £30,192 |
| REDACTED | £18,114 |
| LOVE NORBURY | £12,297 |
| Purley Youth Project | £7,000 |
| Stanley People’s Initiative | £6,736 |
| CROYDON BME FORUM (CWB) | £6,000 |
| SOUTH NORWOOD COMMUNITY FESTIVAL GROUP | £5,500 |
| Sanderstead Residents Association | £5,308 |
| SECHC | £5,119 |
| We Love SE25 – The South Norwood Town Team | £5,000 |
| White Hut Studios (CWB) | £5,000 |
| Howard Primary School | £4,941 |
| Pinewood Scout Centre | £4,894 |
| SCOTS ESTATE NORBURY RESIDENT | £4,500 |
| Solid Rock Academy | £4,500 |
| CACFO UK (CWB) | £4,000 |
| White Hut Studios | £4,000 |
| Reaching Higher | £4,000 |
| Thornton Heath Business Partnership | £4,000 |
| Croydon Commitment | £4,000 |
| St John the Divine PCC | £3,973 |
| Addiscombe and Shirley Park Residents Association (ASPRA) | £3,500 |
| London Mozart Players | £3,500 |
| St. Dominic’s Church (CWB) | £3,333 |
| Westcotec Ltd | £3,280 |
| Westcotec Ltd | £3,280 |
| Croydon Bme Forum | £3,050 |
| The Upper Norwood Library Trust | £3,000 |
| All Saints Kenley | £3,000 |
| Greenvale Primary School | £2,802 |
| CBNWA (CWB) | £2,750 |
| KENLEY MEMORIAL HALL (CWB) | £2,600 |
| People for Portland Road | £2,600 |
| Willow Learning for Life Ltd Community Interest Company | £2,500 |
| Thornton Heath Community Action Team | £2,500 |
| CLOCFG | £2,500 |
| DCC of St Edmunds Sanderstead | £2,500 |
| South Croydon Business Association | £2,500 |
| Elite Development FC | £2,500 |
| CROYDON VOLUNTARY ACTION (CWB) | £2,500 |
| CROYDON SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATION PROJECT (CWB) | £2,500 |
| YuleFest (CWB) | £2,467 |
| Bangladeshi British Society Croydon | £2,400 |
| Good Wolf People (CWB) | £2,400 |
| Croydon Pride (CWB) | £2,320 |
| The Shrublands Trust (CWB) | £2,300 |
| LONGHEATH GARDENS, LONG LANE & MILFORD GARDENS RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION (CWB) | £2,225 |
| LLMRA | £2,149 |
| PURLEY BURY TENNIS CLUB (CWB) | £2,000 |
| Riddlesdown Tennis Club | £2,000 |
| Brighton Road Baptist Church | £2,000 |
| Croydon Community Against Trafficking | £2,000 |
| Bromley & Croydon Women’s Aid | £2,000 |
| CROHAM HURST GOOD NEIGHBOURS | £2,000 |
| Ciro Donadio (CWB) | £2,000 |
| Thornton Heath Business Partnership (CWB) | £2,000 |
| Rotary Club of Purley_ | £2,000 |
| Croydon District Scout Council | £2,000 |
| Selsdon Residents Association (CWB) | £2,000 |
| Redacted | £1,875 |
| St Georges Shirley PCC (CWB) | £1,867 |
| THE FRIENDS OF ASHBURTON PARK | £1,861 |
| The Shrublands Trust | £1,760 |
| 285 (Coulsdon & Purley) Sqdn ATC | £1,757 |
| Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (Afruca) | £1,750 |
| Woodcote High School | £1,683 |
| West Croydon Methodist Church | £1,555 |
| Community Family Worker | £1,500 |
| GUIDING HANDS ORGANISATION CIC | £1,500 |
| GBS RE CROYDON HLTH SRVS NHST (CWB) | £1,500 |
| Forestdale Primary School | £1,500 |
| GAGE CIC (CWB) | £1,500 |
| Park Run | £1,500 |
| St George’s Shirley PCC | £1,500 |
| Croydon Indians Group Ltd | £1,500 |
| Gye Nyame Development Foundation | £1,482 |
| East Croydon Community Organisation | £1,480 |
| THE FESTIVE LIGHTING COMPANY(CWB) | £1,463 |
| Friends of South Norwood Country Park (CWB) | £1,333 |
| Stanley People?s Initiative (CWB) | £1,333 |
| Crystal Palace F C Foundation (CWB) | £1,267 |
| Friends of Norbury Park | £1,216 |
| Community Garden Thornton Heath | £1,200 |
| J J Martin (Catering Appliance Superstore) Ltd | £1,180 |
| SELSON VILLAGE CLUB (CWB) | £1,158 |
| Rising Stars Support CIC | £ 1,083 |
| PLAY PLACE INNOV8 CIC (CWB) | £1,020 |
| Crystal Palace & Norwood Chamber Commerce | £1,000 |
| Nightwatch | £1,000 |
| Friends of Lloyd Park Croydon | £1,000 |
| Fairchildes Academy Community Trust t/a Fairchildes Primary School | £1,000 |
| Surrey Beekeepers Association | £1,000 |
| Friends of Stambourne Woods | £1,000 |
| Citizen Welfare Organisation Ltd | £1,000 |
| All Heads Recognized Ltd | £1,000 |
| White Hut Studios (CWB) | £1,000 |
| SOUTH NORWOOD AND WOODSIDE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION | £1,000 |
| Another Night of Sisterhood CIC | £1,000 |
| St Gertrude’s Church | £1,000 |
| CROYDON BOROUGH NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH ASSOCIATION | £1,000 |
| Whyteleafe F C | £1,000 |
| Croydon Food Bank | £1,000 |
| Croydon Pet Hospital | £1,000 |
| Friends of Littleheath Woods | £1,000 |
| CROYDON DISTRICT SCOUT COUNCIL (CWB) | £1,000 |
| Kenley Memorial Hall | £1,000 |
| 7th Purley Scout Group | £1,000 |
| Rotary Club of Purley | £1,000 |
| Evolve Housing & Support | £1,000 |
| Palace for Life Foundation (CWB) | £1,000 |
| OLD COULSDON CENTRE FOR THE RETIRED | £950 |
| Festivelighting | £950 |
| Black Stock Target Communications (CWB) | £900 |
| Norbury Green Residents Association (CWB) | £900 |
| CHRISTIAN FAMILY CONCERN (CWB) | £836 |
| St Aidan’s Catholic Primary School | £800 |
| Grangewood Bowling Club | £750 |
| Foundation 47 (CWB) | £750 |
| New Addington Pathfinders (CWB) | £750 |
| New Addington Christmas Lights Appeal | £700 |
| ELMWOOD JUNIOR SCHOOL (CWB) | £700 |
| Croydon Voluntary Association for the Blind (CWB) | £650 |
| African Youth Development Association (CWB) | £605 |
| Croydon Hearing Resource | £600 |
| Well Being You Ltd | £595 |
| Friends of Littleheath Woods (CWB) | £575 |
| Mind In Croydon | £575 |
| LONDON MOZART PLAYERS (CWB) | £550 |
| 2nd Selsdon & Addington Scout Group | £531 |
| Thornton Heath Community Action Team | £500 |
| SOLIDROCK ACADEMY (CWB) | £500 |
| The Children and young Peoples Gardening Project (CWB) | £500 |
| Imagine Independence (CWB) | £500 |
| Winterbourne Nursery & Infant School (CWB) | £500 |
| Circle of parents 2 friends (CWB) | £500 |
| Another Night of Sisterhood CIC (CWB) | £500 |
| Thornton Heath Community Action Team (CWB) | £500 |
| Pollards Hill Residents Association (CWB) | £500 |
| The Friends of Park Hill Park (CWB) | £500 |
| CAGE CIC (CWB) | £500 |
| Croydon Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association (CWB) | £500 |
| 44th Croydon Air Scout Group | £500 |
| Croydon Cricket Club of India | £500 |
| Waddington Way Residents Association | £500 |
| Friends of Grangewood Park | £500 |
| St Peters Parochid Church Council | £500 |
| WE-STAP | £500 |
| Active Living Support CIC | £500 |
| Pinspired Ltd (CWB) | £500 |
| Friends of Bradmore Green | £500 |
| KAREN JEWITT (CWB) | £500 |
| Public Spaces | £347 |
| Total | £333,364 |
If you want to know more about the national picture, listen to Harry Fone the Grassroots Campaign Manager of TPA on with Mike Graham on Talk Radio.
