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Council boss given year's salary to leave
Friday, 6am - COUNCIL boss Duncan Kerr resigned with immediate effect from his £105,000-a-year job on Monday - and no one is prepared to say why he went or confirm how much he was paid to go.
Friday, 6am - COUNCIL boss Duncan Kerr resigned with immediate effect from his 105,000-a-year job on Monday - and no one is prepared to say why he went or confirm how much he was paid to go.But the Journal understands the South Kesteven District Council chief executive received a year's salary in exchange for relinquishing his post following a vote of no confidence when councillors met in private on Monday.
Strategic director Beverly Agass has taken over as interim chief executive until the future of the council's management has been decided.
The Journal contacted several councillors to ask about the cirumstances of Mr Kerr's resignation, but none would confirm why he had left. Several claimed not to know anything at all about his severance package.
Speaking to the Journal this week, council leader Linda Neal denied she told Mr Kerr to leave.
She said: "I don't think that's the case at all. Duncan and I are on the best of terms and I wish him well for the future.
"He's decided that after 30 years in local government he's chosen to move his life in a different direction and he feels this is the appropriate time to do that.
"If that's what he wants to do, then that's his choice to make."
Mrs Neal refused to say how much Mr Kerr had been paid to go.
Strategic director Beverly Agass has been appointed interim chief executive of the council.
She said: "The focus is about continuing to go forward. We've got a really good team in place and we're ready to deliver. It's business as usual for us and we have to look forward at what we've agreed with the cabinet as priorities.
"We have got some very hard-working people here at the council and it's about making sure that we're ready to continue moving forward."
Mr Kerr joined the council in 2003 and oversaw a number of major projects, including the introduction of the twin-bin recycling system.
But he caused controversy last year when he took five months off work - three months of which was unpaid - to cycle around Europe.
Returning from his trip, he told the Journal he did not believe his trip had shown the council could do without him and said he did think he would be made redundant.
An appointments panel set up to decide the future of SKDC's management structure is due to report back to councillors on April 23.
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