Dr Susan Priest Chief Exec of FHDC fails to land top KCC job

Dr Susan Priest became  Head of Paid Service of Folkestone & Hythe District Council as of April 1st 2018, beating the s151 officer Tim Madden to the job. She later became Chief Executive of Folkestone & Hythe District Council as well.

As Chief Executive, Susan has overall responsibility for the delivery of all services the council offer.

Susan oversees all staff and works closely with councillors to provide leadership and strategic direction.

She was financial rewarded with a £30,000 pay rise for her incomptent management (in our honest opinion) of the East Kent Housing mess.

She has overseen the failure of the £40 million Veoila/Council waste contract mess. And also on her watch, the Council has failed to collect hundreds of thousands of pounds of money for environmental permits. And these are just some of her many failings we’ve documented in the last three years.

According to well placed sources Susan has a penchant for micromanaging, and everything but everything crosses her desk.

It was former alderman and leader of our Council Cllr Robert Bliss (RIP) who brought her to our Council. The reason she was brought on board was because of her extensive connections, as he put it.

News has come to us though Susan has itchy feet and is looking for pastures new just three years into her tenure as Head of Paid Service and Chief Executive of Folkestone & Hythe District Council.

We understand that recently she applied for Barabara Cooper’s Job at Kent County Council. Mrs Cooper (pictured) is Corporate Director Growth, Environment & Transport and earns £165,000 a year (without pension contributions). This would be a deminimus £23,000 increase for Susan.

That aside, we further understand that she was initially given the position but then just days later the offer was withdrawn.

Well placed sources let it be known to us that some of the reasons the job was withdraw was because of what we have written about her incompetent management style (in our honest opinion).

We believe that Cllrs should now call an extraordinary meeting to hold a vote of no confidence in Dr Susan Priest management as she doesn’t want it to be here. And she doesn’t deserve a huge pay off like she received when she left SEEDA

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We also believe the s151 Officer, Charlotte Spendley and Assistant Director – Governance, Law and Regulatory Services Amandeep Khroud should also move on by mutual consent without any golden goodbye or Non disclosure Agreement.

We understand there are some Cllrs who would not be adverse to such a vote. However, as they are all statutory officers, they are well protected under Part 8.2 of the Council constitution. Given that, it’s our belief they might struggle to rid them from our underperforming council, but if they don’t try they’ll never know.

The Shepway Vox Team

Journalism for the People NOT the Powerful