Everyone’s best mate and ex-Chief Exec of the Isle of Wight council, Joe Duckworth, was in the paper over the weekend.
Dear, dear Joe (choice of words are quite appropriate here) leapt from the top position on the Island to Chief Exec at Newham Council in London.
Many people had speculated that he’d done a bunk to the mainland borough where the London Olympics will be held because he was after a bauble of some sort — most heads of Olympic councils get a gong we’re told — but it’s now clear that there may have been another reasons too.
He’s on a £240,000 salary there, making him the highest paid council Chief Exec in the country.
The Telegraph ran a story on him on Sunday which was none too flattering, pointing out that when he joined, the IW council was rated at two out of four star by the Audit Commission. The same was also true when he left.
It wasn’t just the salary or performance that they criticised.
Critics on the island claim his time in office was marked by expensive pipe dreams and low morale at the town hall. His personal manner and communication skills were not to everyone’s liking.
One female councillor, who asked not to be named, said: “He swore like a trooper, stamped his feet a lot and shouted. You wouldn’t think of it when you first met him, but that was the way he operated.
“A lot of people used to complain about that, but they were too scared to complain to his face. There was a real atmosphere of fear at the council.”
We wonder if the reported low-morale and atmosphere of fear have changed at the council since then.
When we met him, he was always a perfect gent, but then again he had no reason not to be.
Stuff we’ve written about Joe Duckworth
