By Gavin Mackintosh-
Croydon Council’s scrutiny committee is calling for accountability for a total of £70m unaccounted spending, including the latest £10million loan to Brick by Brick, and the £69million purchase of 104 flats from failed housing developers.
At a meting tomorrow, Thursday, the scrutiny committee will seek to hold the decision-makers of the council to account, to explain a further loan of £10m to Brick and Brick, despite the council’s crippling debts. Croydon council’s problems is a big burden for any professional or group of professionals to carry.
The crisis ridden council, which has caused pain to many of its residents for years, became bankrupt as a result of mismanagement of the highest degree, and corruption in some instances. New deals involving the purchase of over 100 units has made those sceptical of the council very wary of its plans. News that the same financially battered council will pick up £69.2 million, loaned to Brick by Brick for the bungled Fairfield Halls development, and move it to capital expenditure to wipe out the loan has increased suspicions.
After residents of the widely publicised Regina flats endured leaks and damps in their properties for up to 4 years without resolution, critics of this council are not trusting of its integrity at all. Positive words about the council are difficult to find. Among council staff quietly spoken to, blame is pointed from one direction to another.
Many of the council’s top officials have been forced to resign within a short period, with improvised replacements made to manage the chaos that has made Croydon Council possibly the worst operating council in the UK today.
A retired project manager is demanding that he and the scrutiny committee’s other members are granted sight of 18 key documents. Some of the paper work being demanded go back as far as 2016. Most of them relates to Brick by Brick and the various land deals and contracts around the Fairfield Halls refurbishment.
Dubious council officials have declined to release the reports and contracts, despite requests from the borough’s elected representatives. They have cited commercial confidentiality as the reason for their refusal, an excuse most observers dismiss as nonsense.
The requested documents list includes papers from the parts of council meetings usually only discussed behind closed doors – as well as correspondence with third parties, such as Mott MacDonald, to explain some of the serious set backs that have faced the council in recent years.
One question they have is why the Croydon-based global construction firm walked off the Fairfield Halls project in 2017, the first significant sign that there were serious problems with the scheme, as was exclusively revealed by Inside Croydon.
The documents also include the report from auditors Grant Thornton on the Fairfield Halls refurbishment. Many questions are being asked, there isn’t much faith that council bosses want to release answers with many interested parties and shocked journalists wondering how much hope there is for change in Croydon Council.
Thursday’s meeting is expecting to be tense, with many questions, but few answers. Many people are fed up with the cycle of lies and incompetence in Croydon Council, but doubt the needed change will come anytime soon.