Council announces resignation of another suspended senior officer

by Lisa Reeves

Monday 8^th April 2019

Mon 8^th Apr 2019

A senior officer at Cheshire East Council has resigned today (Monday, 8th April) with immediate effect , 16 months after being suspended.

Chief Operating Officer Peter Bates was suspended in December 2017 following a meeting of Cheshire East Council's investigation and disciplinary committee. At the time, an additional four officers within the organisation were currently suspended, to enable an investigations into allegations in respect of their conduct to be undertaken.

A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said: "The council's chief operating officer, Peter Bates, has decided to leave his employment with Cheshire East Council with effect from 8 April 2019. As a matter of policy, Cheshire East Council does not comment on individual staffing matters."

Whilst Cheshire East Council would not provide details of how much each of their suspended officers was being paid they did confirm last year that they were all receiving their full salary, stating "As suspension is a neutral act, the Council continues to pay officers who are suspended at their normal salary."

The council's Director of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer, Bill Norman resigned in December 2017 with immediate effect. Mr Norman had been suspended since July 2017 - while an investigation into allegations relating to his conduct were undertaken.

Then in July 2017, Cheshire East Council confirmed that their former chief executive, Mike Suarez has resigned with immediate effect having been suspended since April 2017 after concerns were raised over his conduct.

Tags:: Cheshire East Council

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Pete Taylor

Monday 8^th April 2019 at 1:48 pm

Some of us have been calling for “Special Measures” for years.
The Independent Councillors have been calling for an end to the secretive eight-person Cabinet.

See what happens when the Secretary of State does not act?

Drain the swamp. Elections coming, please use your vote.

Nick Jones

Monday 8^th April 2019 at 2:23 pm

Absolute disgrace ..3 suspended officers.. paid off .. no sanctions.. just more cost.. INCOMPETENT and INCAPABLE .. Drain the swamp indeed !

Does anyone know where the 7 or 8 Police investigations up to then ??

Dave Cash

Tuesday 9^th April 2019 at 12:26 am

Discipllnary hearigs need to be held within 1 month of suspension.
I will do my Civic duty on May 2nd, come hell or high water.

Gemma Evans

Tuesday 9^th April 2019 at 8:16 pm

The only way to resolve this, once and for all, is to not vote Conservative in next month's Cheshire East elections. When Mike Jones stood down as leader after wasting taxpayer's money, the Conservative's chose Rachel Bailey who was involved in the Lyme Green fiasco, which wasted £3m of taxpayer's money while our highways, schools and buses all saw funding cuts. Even electing an honest, reasonable Conservative increases the chance that a corrupt Conservative will continue to be in overall charge.

Bob Bracegirdle

Wednesday 10^th April 2019 at 11:14 pm

So pleased to get a Labour leaflet through my door today. Not because I necessarily want to vote for them but they have never done so before. Always Tory ones and no one else’s.

John Harries

Thursday 11^th April 2019 at 9:35 am

Well spoken Nick Jones.
I've vented my spleen over CEC elsewhere in this media vehicle - and I don't follow everything really closely.
Even in disgrace and shame 'they' continue to act disgracefully and if you are not satisfied about progress of any police involvement go ask that overpaid Commissioner to to get some answers.
But please, let's try not to remain politically tribal on this subject, we want and need honest, capable local 'independant' people representing local interests - we MUST HAVE at least a majority of them in the CEC Cabinet (if indeed that is how the executive structure persists).
Change nothing, nothing changes - KICK 'EM OUT in May.