It Seems that We Underestimated the Gulf Between the Mayor and Her Chief Exec.
New councillors and indeed, the new Chief Exec should be forewarned.
Working with the incumbent mayor, it seems, is neither pleasant nor productive, or so we are told. We have expressed a degree of schadenfreude at the breakdown in relationships between the mayor and her councillor colleagues and between the mayor and her senior staff; what we have missed is the levels of distress that this behaviour has caused.
What we learn is that the breakdown in relations between Fiaz and Althea Loderick occurred very early on, leaving Loderick to decide to get out as soon as respectably possible.
It seems that Loderick is willing to take a pay cut of between £31,000 and £56,000 just to get out of Newham*.
Our advice to councillor candidates: if you signed up to make a change. GET OUT NOW, BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. You run the risk that your life will become a misery of backbiting and being undermined. If you are rash enough to have an independent thought, expect to be punished.
If you are happy enough to tow the mayor’s line, if you’re not bothered about making a change, then the next four years should be no problem. And even if you do not scale the lofty heights of local government, you can bank on enough to run a car and have a couple of holidays a year. All you have to do is, err, nothing. And ideally, do it quietly.
Our advice to candidates for the post of Chief Exec. RING ALTHEA LODERICK, not us. She should be easy to find, she’ll be available on the Southwark Council number. Speak to her and find out what working in Newham is really like.
*Loderick received £242,000 pa as CE in Newham. The advertised pay for the CE role in Southwark was between £186,102-£211,497 pa.