Following Steve Beynon’s insistence that Mark Chiverton was not told to stand down from his candidature as Labour MP or resign from his post at the council, we spoke with Mark this afternoon.
On a crackly telephone line, he told us that after the meeting he’d had with a senior council officer, which left him “bemused and devastated”, he subsequently emailed the senior officer, putting back the proposition, first reported this morning, which has never been denied.
He went on to say that his standing as a parliamentary candidate was cleared by the previous Chief Exec, Joe Duckworth, two and a half years ago.
Clearly concerned by the situation he told VB that this was the “most worrying week for me and my family for my entire 37 year working career.”
Mark has much more to say, listen to the podcast by clicking on the play button below. [audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/mark-chiverton-2010-02-03.mp3]
Update: It might be useful to point out that as far as we’re aware, this action has nothing to do with The Leader or any other councillors.
This should be a matter between Mark and the council officers involved.
The handling of staff and day-to-day running of the council is down to the officers “¦ and councillors are strictly forbidden to be involved with the execution. Their role is to set policy.
