They're all as bad as each other .......
Mayor breaks silence to say he won’t publish #PennReportPosted on October 8, 2022 by insidecroydonCROYDON IN CRISIS: Part-time Perry took four days to respond to questions over the refusal to publish a controversial report, only to confirm that he is not in charge of the council. By STEVEN DOWNESFour days after he was approached to comment on why Croydon Council has failed to act on any of the recommendations contained in the Penn Report, and part-time Mayor Jason Perry has finally broken his silence.The Conservative Mayor was elected in May on a manifesto that promised to sweep away the malpractice and mismanagement of the previous Labour administration. But nearly six months after taking office, Perry continues to withhold the Penn Report, which was commissioned from the Local Government Association in 2020 to investigate possible wrong-doing in the lead-up to Croydon’s financial collapse.Inside Croydon broke the news on Tuesday that LGA official Richard Penn had recommended getting the borough’s elected councillors to consider calling in the police to investigate possible misconduct in public office, as well as the possibility of trying to recover the £437,000 gold-plated pay-off handed to discredited former chief exec Jo Negrini for breach of contract.For four days, Mayor Perry was silent, ignoring our invitation for him to comment.Then, last night, Perry issued a statement via Twitter. There’s no mention of the Penn Report on the council’s website’s news pages, although they do give over a hunk of bandwidth to claims that Perry is cleaning up the borough (of graffiti, but not civic incompetence).Perry’s belated response to our Penn Report revelations confirms, once again, that he may be in office, but he is not in control.In office, but not in control: the person actually in charge of the council is on the rightPerry has failed to take decisive action and is cowering behind the excuses for non-publication and inaction offered by the council’s current chief exec, Katherine Kerswell. As Inside Croydon predicted before the Mayoral referendum, having a directly elected mayor is just #ABitLessShit.So while The Guardian, Private Eye, the BBC London news website and The Municipal Journal have this week all followed Inside Croydon’s lead, Mayor Perry decided to stay schtum and instead rely on the dubious advice from the same council legal department that was, in some large measure, responsible for getting the borough into its current mess (albeit that the major player in that regard, lawyer Jacqueline Harris-Baker, who is much criticised in the Penn Report, has long since left the organisation).Perry’s statement simply endorsed the policy of the previous administration, claiming concerns over threatened legal action from those named in the Penn Report.What Perry failed to state on Twitter was that he has this week also endorsed the council’s most senior legal official, Monitoring Officer Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, in issuing legal threats against this website and its editor.Along with the legal threats, Lawrence-Orumwense demanded that we must return our copy of the Penn Report… thus giving yet more credence to the suggestion that the council – now supported by Mayor Perry – is actively seeking to suppress the report.Perry’s tweet states: “Residents and businesses may be aware that a copy of the Penn Report has been leaked. The council and I cannot comment on the contents of the leaked report without risking tax-payer money through legal challenge…”.Which is, of course, supine nonsense. The council never bats an eyelid about hiring expensive lawyers to front-up at all kinds of tribunals when it is contesting claims brought by the ill-served families of autistic children, or when trying to gag sacked whistle-blowers.For the council to be challenged over the Penn Report, the likes of Negrini or Tony Newman would need to be prepared to face the prospect of standing up in court, possibly in front of a jury of 12 ordinary residents, and to claim that their reputation had in some way been damaged by what had been reported.Just consider that thought for a moment.Clearly, Jason Perry has not.Last night, Perry wrote, “This week’s articles on the Penn Report have reminded us all of the sheer level of dysfunction and mismanagement under the previous administration.“Those failures not only bankrupted the council, they have left a lasting legacy of financial and service destruction which we will continue to feel the effects of for years to come. Many of those financial failures have yet to be resolved, for example the potential £70million loss on Croydon Affordable Homes.“That is why I have always been committed to the full publication of the Penn Report…”, the public want actions, Jase, not more empty words, “… once legal and other processes have been completed so as not to risk yet more tax-payer money.“As Mayor, I am committed to resolving these issues and fixing the council’s finances. That will take time and mean difficult decisions to come but I know together as a community we can get our borough back on track.”But Mayor Perry ain’t publishing the Penn Report.So it looks like Inside Croydon will have to do so, in the interests of the people of Croydon.https://insidecroydon.com/2022/10/08/mayor-breaks-silence-to-say-he-wont-publish-pennreport/
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