Two senior officers from Cheshire East Council, whose actions were investigated in relation to the Lyme Green fiasco, have resigned.
The Council has confirmed that John Nicholson, Strategic Director Places and Organisational Capacity, and Caroline Elwood, Borough Solicitor, resigned yesterday.
The actions of both John Nicholson and Caroline Elwood, along with one other senior member of staff, were examined by a Designated Independent Person (DIP), who was reviewing the Council's proposal to build a recycling station at Lyme Green Depot in Macclesfield.
A review published in the summer revealed that the Council had spent over £800,000 of taxpayers money on the Lyme Green scheme and failed to achieve planning permission before the main contractor commenced work on the site.
In addition, officers did not comply with EU Procurement Regulations or ensure there was effective reporting to members of the council.
Earlier this week Cheshire East Council confirmed that the confidential report of the DIP had been completed and passed to the Council's Staffing Sub Committee for consideration.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
They were
1) The Strategic Director of Places (John Nicholson)
2) The Borough Solicitor (Caroline Elwood)
3) The Director of Finance and Business Services
4) The Professional Services and Framework Manager
5) The Waste and Recycling Manager
Should we be expecting more resignations?
I would also like to be assured that on resignation the Director of Places and Borough Solicitor were paid their contractual minimum and that there were no 'sweetners
And was their behaviour careless/corrupt/illegal? If it's the last of these, will there be a police investigation? If not, why not?
And then there was Erika Wenzel, as CEO she must have had knowledge of this or been utterly negligent in her duty. If she was negligent, who decided she should be paid £93,550 of your money?
Why are no Councillors apparently being investigated in connection with this? They have an obligation to monitor the activities of the officers and, as I was told recently by a Portfolio Holder, the officers tell the Councillors what they need to know. Did Messrs Fitzgerald (Leader of the Council at the time of the project and Councillor for West Wilmslow & Chorley now) and Jones (Portfolio Holder for Resources at the time of the project and Council Leader now) really have no knowledge of what was happening? I'm finding that hard to believe.
No doubt elected representatives will claim not to have know, well it is there duty to have had the procedures and checks and balances to ensure that they were told.