Alistair’s £184,000 golden goodbye
So long, farewell Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye to Mr Alistair Stewart Chief Executive of Shepway District Council, on the 31st March. When Mr Stewart drives of into the sunset heading for home to Lincolnshire, he will take with him £183,496.98 – that’s 573.5 £320 lunches. Mr. Stewart, the Chief Executive will be “dismissed on the grounds of redundancy on 31 March 2018.(Saturday)”. The money for his redundancy is broken down so: – Annex 1 (para 3.6.3.7 and 3.8)
In 2014 Peter Wignall, left SDC with a £185,000 redundancy package only to be rehired in less than a year. It created headlines in the Folkestone & Hythe Express and the Folkestone Herald in Jan 2015 (pictured below). The taxpayers alliance even had something to say about it. (final 2 paragraphs). Now there has not been even a whimper from a local newspaper, nor UKIP, Labour, The Green’s or the Liberal Democrats, have they not got something to say about Alistair’s £184,000 pay out?
Moving on, who will take Mr Stewart’s job?
On Wednesday 28th Feb 2018 at Full Council (Agenda Item 92) it was agreed that the post for the Chief Executive be advertised internally and the Constitution was amended to reflect this. This means therefore that Corporate Director Dr Susan Priest (pictured below left), Corporate Director Tim Madden (centre) and Corporate Director John Bunnett (pictured right) – former CEO of Ashford Borough Council may all well be in the running.
We understand interviews will be held on March 27th 2018 – Annex 1 see Para 4.4 – for the post of Chief Executive and a decision will hopefully be announced on the next day, 28th March at the Extraordinary Full Council meeting.
We wish all the candidates the best of luck. Our personal preference would be to see Dr Susan Priest take up the role as SDC Chief Executive, as SDC have NEVER had a woman at the helm before, yet we’ve had two female prime ministers. That said, Tim Madden has managed the finances and the transformation of the Council with cold calculating efficiency. As for Mr Bunnett, he knows what it takes to be a Chief Exec of a Council, as he was Ashford Borough Council former Chief Exec. He properly started at Shepway District Council this month – March 2018, after leaving his job at Brett‘s as Group Director for Land & Planning. It is known he will act as the landowner for Otterpool Park for the Council. For a visual impact of Mr Bunnett’s work, one needs to look no further than what has and is happening in Ashford. This we believe will tell you everything you need to know about Mr Bunnett.
It is expected SDC’s new Chief Executive will take up their position as of the 1st April 2018. On April fool’s day SDC will morph into Folkestone & Hythe District Council.
The Shepwayvox Team
Amazing, SDC say they have to cut front line services due to not having any money. Yet they manage to find it to pay the arse wipes extortionate amounts. If that’s not corrupt I don’t know what is. I totally resent my council tax money being used in this way. Who the hell do SDC think they are? They are worse than criminal cartels imho.
I do hope that we see an example of the Peter Principle here…
Perhaps Jeremy Chambers must be kicking himself as he could have been in the running..
One never know’s he might be a contender. We sincerely hope not, but this is SDC we are talking about here. Anything is possible in our humble opinion
Why is the position being made redundant? I guess SDC will continue to have a Big Cheese running the show, if he wanted to leave could he not retire?
I heard he’s gone thanks to the efficiency program, what’s the betting that’s pulled as soon as the ink dries on the cheque.
Phew! Just before the a cap on all public sector exit payments is restricted to £95,000 and having to serve such a short notice period…