£149,000 Telford council chief executive is leaving
Friday 8th July 2011, 11:26AM BST.
The £149,000-a-year chief executive of Telford & Wrekin Council is to leave and a search has begun for a stop-gap replacement, it was revealed today.
Ruling councillors last night granted Victor Brownlees’s request to take voluntary redundancy and a deal will be struck over his pay-off.
Council spokesman Nigel Newman said the size of the redundancy payment would be made public as soon as possible after the deal was ratified by the personnel board next week.
Last week it was revealed Mr Brownlees, who is currently on holiday and not expected to return to the authority, had offered to quit less than two months after Labour wrested control of the council from the Tories at the May elections.
His shock move was prompted by a Labour shake-up of top brass at the authority and the new ruling group’s decision to make it a “co-operative” council.
Mr Brownlees’s imminent departure leaves the council looking for its third chief executive in two years.
Mr Newman said: “The council is seeking internal and external applicants for the interim post and the council’s personnel board will be in a position to recommend an appointment later this month.
“As with any such appointment, this must be ratified by the council and this should happen at its meeting on July 28.
“Working with the cabinet, the interim chief executive will advise on the strategic direction of the council, including a review of senior management, ensuring that this aligns with Telford & Wrekin becoming a co-operative council.
“In order for the review of the senior management structure to take place, a permanent appointment will not be in post until early next year.”
Most Commented
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff doesn't raise a smile
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
give them kim ryley once he’s finished his hatchett job on shropshire
Report abuse
Redundancy can only happen if it meets the statutory requirements. You cannot make a Chief Executive redundant and immediatly appoint another Chief Executive. This would be a direct breach of redundancy law. Telford Councillors shoul speak to their colleagues in Eas Lothian where such a move caused a national scandal and the council was censured by the Auditor General.
Report abuse
Hope the money saved can be donated to reintroduce some of the Mental Health Services after recent cuts in South Telford.
Report abuse
£149.000 A YEAR that is an absoloute joke… i am up for the challange.i will do his job for £100.000 a year….save some mone for one mr council
Report abuse
Hang on! If he’s taking redundancy that means the post is no longer needed, right? So why are they looking for a stop gap replacement?
He’s either walking or being made redundant, which is it? If he’s just walking out on a job, that still needs to be filled, why the redundancy?
One rule for the boys, another for the workers.
Do the taxpayers of Telford want to pay a guy who walks away from a job, redundancy….I for one don’t!
Report abuse
Let’s be clear…
He is not being made redundant he is leaving of his own accord… therefore a months pay in lieu and get out.
Watch our incompetent council hand him hundreds of thousands of pounds and he will walk into another job with another council within months.
If I were a telford council tax payer they would not be seeing a penny of my money to hand out to their chums in basically a quitters bonus.
Report abuse
Gizza a job I can do that, for that money
Report abuse
How can he get a redundancy payment if the post is going to filled again?
I wonder if all the staff at shropshire council will be able to take voluntary redundancy rather than be sacked?
(Answers on a small stamp please)
Report abuse
Well, there he goes then; potentially with a nice tidy payoff consisting of a large portion of our Council Tax. Nice to know a playground somewhere in Telford isn’t going to get repaired…
…Will the next fat cat please stand up.
Report abuse
Unless the pay-off is zero, then methinks that someone in the council has made a tactical error in allowing Victor to take voluntary redundancy.
And if they’re searching for a replacement, then surely there was no reason for a redundancy in the first place.
Wonder which council he’ll will turn up at next?
And I wonder how much the next incumbent will receive as salary. Bet it’s even higher than this one.
Report abuse
How can he be replaced if he is being made redundant? Redundancy means that the post of Chief Executive is no longer required. If however, someone is going to replace him, it is not right that he should receive a pay off, although the council may accept his resignation.
Report abuse
No doubt some of the ‘armchair lawyers’ on here will correct me, but I always thought it was the post that was made redundant, not the person, and that is ILLEGAL to fill a redundant post within a certain time, or the person made redundant can claim compensation for unfair dismissal. So either the chief executive is old enough to meet the minimum age for early retirement (currently 55 in local government) and will receive a pension based on the contributions he and his employers have made over the period he has been working in local government, or he’s resigning, pure and simple; in that case and given the public sector spending cuts that are currently happening surely the council will be inviting an investigation from the Local Government Ombudsman if they were to make some kind of ex-gratia payment to Mr Brownlees
Report abuse
If he is offering to leave, why should he qualify for redundancy payment ? It is his choice to leave his job.Most people would not get redundancy payment if they gave up their job.
Report abuse
Old Novaportan / Jules
You’ll probably find this is a more like ‘compromise agreement’; more common in Private companies. The company want you out, but they want to replace you;
As O.N. quite rightly points out, as you normally make a position redundant, and they want to fill it again, the compromise is the way forward.
It usually means greatly enhanced ‘redundancy’ terms and a signature from the leaver surrendering their right to sue later.
Report abuse
The main difference being, of course, that “compromise agreements” in private companies are sorted out using the private company’s money whereas if this is a “compromise agreement” then it will use taxpayers’ money, money that the council tells us we don’t have.
Report abuse
As I understand it, there will be no chief executive in the future, therefore the post is indeed redundant. We are going to have a co-operative counil instead – I assume that means ‘run by a committee’. Oh good.
Report abuse
I believe there is a legal requirement for a local authority to appoint a chief executive as that role holds many statutory duties. It is possible for the same person to share this role over two authorities.
Report abuse
Council! As chief pedant around here I really must be more careful :)
Report abuse
Run by committee!
does that mena they will all get 149k a year.
These are useless, lazy council managers, what on earth are they paying themsleves these big sums of money for.
Privatise it all now I say.
Report abuse