Council welcomes new head of service

Crawley Borough Council has appointed a new senior manager.

Siraj Choudhury will take on the role of Head of Legal, Governance and HR from 29 March following a rigorous selection process, which included a virtual presentation and panel interviews with officers and councillors.

As the council’s principal legal advisor and Monitoring Officer, Siraj will have the specific duty of ensuring that the council, its officers and its elected members maintain the highest standard of conduct in all that they do. He will oversee Legal, HR, Democratic Services, Elections, Audit and Corporate Support.

Siraj brings strong legal, governance and project management expertise from his various roles in local government and the third sector. After starting out as a housing solicitor, he obtained a masters in spatial planning before joining Spelthorne Borough Council’s legal team in 2008. Regularly representing the local authority in court, Siraj conducted litigation and handled a range of regulatory prosecutions, planning inquiries and inquest matters. He also acted as legal advisor for the planning committee and licensing sub-committees.

In 2015, Siraj served as a Principal Solicitor before being appointed to the role of Deputy Group Head (Commissioning & Transformation) the following year. Working across this multi-disciplinary group, he gained a wider corporate exposure and led on Spelthorne’s rapid workplace transformation project. Siraj has also served as the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and has held other non-executive positions.