South Ribble Council leader replaced after 'cover up' claims

Council leader Peter Mullineaux was replaced on Saturday in the wake of a report relating to Heather McManus

A Lancashire council leader has been replaced after claims a report criticising the management style of its chief executive was "covered up".

Heather McManus, of South Ribble Council, was alleged to have been "disrespectful" towards a colleague.

Opposition leader Paul Foster said the report itself was not the main issue, rather "the fact that the authority has deemed it appropriate to cover it up".

Before standing down, Peter Mullineaux said all complaints were investigated.

An employee, who works for both Chorley Council and South Ribble Council as part of a shared services agreement, made a complaint about Ms McManus.

An independent investigator from the Local Government Association concluded that while she had not bullied anyone she had demonstrated "unacceptable behaviour" by questioning the worker in front of others.

The report said that while Ms McManus admitted her frustration with the employee, she said she would never single out a person in a meeting.

She declined to comment to the media.

Before Mr Mullineaux was replaced as council leader on Saturday, he said: "As a council, we don't ever comment on individual employment matters.

"However, I would like to stress that any complaint received is always dealt with and investigated in a robust and extremely thorough manner."

Mr Foster said: "It does appear it has been covered up because we knew the report was coming into the council and there's a really simple process and an employment panel in place that is due to deal with it.

"Yet we hear from our colleagues at Chorley that it had all been put to bed and dealt with.

"It's not the actual report that's necessarily the main issue here - it's the fact that [South Ribble Council] deemed it appropriate to cover it up."

Analysis

Many South Ribble Conservative councillors have been briefing against Peter Mullineaux's leadership for a few months now, so will be glad to see him go.

Some will say the current administration had come to a natural end, but there will be others who say that the allegations of "covering up" this report were a major contributing factor in the decision to choose a new leader.

For a number of people, the fact there's a new top team at South Ribble will represent hope but one councillor told me this was an example of the controlling Conservative group "moving deckchairs while the ship sinks".

Chorley Borough Council leader Alistair Bradley said: "We're concerned about what's happening at South Ribble Borough Council, particularly in relation to the shared services arrangement, and I've written a letter, jointly with the leader of the opposition, to outline our concerns.

"We're requesting an urgent meeting with our colleagues at South Ribble to discuss the matters we have raised with them."

On Saturday, Councillor Mary Green was elected by the local Conservative group to replace Mr Mullineaux as leader.

Her appointment is due to be confirmed at the authority's next full meeting in May.