South Holland District Council’s cabinet has been accused of presiding over a “shambles” with its failure to recruit a new chief executive.
Interim chief executive Trevor Holden, on loan from Luton, will bow out on October 9 – but the full council was only asked on Wednesday to sanction recruitment of a replacement.
There’s also a mystery over the future of deputy chief executive Mark Stokes, who has found a job elsewhere, as Mr Holden revealed at Wednesday’s council meeting that Mr Stokes has still not resigned.
The council gave authority for recruitment of an interim chief executive, on a shared basis with Breckland, until a permanent chief executive is found and also sanctioned appointment of a permanent chief executive.
Coun Angela Newton wanted to know why there was nothing in place.
She said: “I think it’s a shambles and I think our executive need to bear the blame for this. This should have been sorted out well before now in my opinion.”
Coun Roger Gambba-Jones said South Holland tried but failed to find a third partner, to add to the Breckland shared management, and achieve long-term sustainability and “political jousting” was not helpful.