Friday, April 10, 2009

Determined to ask the awkward questions...

Surprised that I seem to be the only local councillor calling for more information about the cost of the mysterious sudden departure of the Chief Executive of South Kesteven District Council.

I was interviewed for the Oakham-based Oak FM last night and quoted in today's Stamford Mercury trying to get the Conservatives who run SKDC to come clean and reveal what deal has been agreed - and at what expense to the public purse.

Linda Neal, the Conservative Leader of SKDC is denying that Duncan's departure is sudden, claiming she's been speaking with him all year about him going!

But she hasn't explained why the man we paid £105,000 a year to run our district council cleared his desk on the day of a secret meeting of councillors earlier this week, and apparently biked into the sunset.

Given that I'd been hearing rumours that the Tories wanted rid of him, I find it hard to accept that he's walked - or biked - from his £105k a year job without negotiating a generous severance deal.

I'm surprised no other local councillor else seems to be speaking out in the local media - specially as the Tories in Lincolnshire have form on getting rid of chief execs (after Tory Leader of the county council Jim Speechley was jailed for abuse of office, they launched a witch-hunt to sack David Bowles. He agreed to go for a payoff of £400,000- and we're all still paying the price of Speechley...)

Given what I know about the Speechley scandal and the cover-up antics at County Hall which followed his imprisonment, I'm determined to get the the bottom of the cost of Duncan Kerr's departure.

Someone has to speak up on behalf of local taxpayers and get answers about how much Duncan's departure is costing us all...and I full intend to keep asking the awkward questions.

Watch this space.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil - but these guys always get paid off. I bet McBride got a payoff. Blunkett did. Mandelson did. Your comments would carry more credibility if you were equally critical of your government paying off proven wrong doers.

fairdealphil said...

Thanks for your comments. I'll keep asking the questions about the costs of Mr Kerr getting on his bike.

At least when I comment, I am prepared to stand up and be counted and not hide behind the cloak of anonymity...!

You may or may not be right about others receiving payoff, and I'm sure they'll be no shortage of national pundits trawling the debris to find out.

So far, it seems I'm the only voice calling for more info about the cost to local council taxpayers of the mysterious and sudden departure of Mr Kerr, particularly in light of the £400,000 payoff to David Bowles, who was certainly no wrong-doer.