Back in May, Clare Pestell was announced as the new Chief Executive of South Somerset District Council. Council Leader Val Keitch was delighted by the appointment. She said at the time “We are delighted to appoint Clare to this role. She has demonstrated such innovation and leadership in her role as Director. She has transformed the culture and mindset of the council to be more commercial. That means we can deliver services to our residents with financial security.”
Then in the first week of June, Ms Pestell resigned for “personal reasons”. But remained an employee of South Somerset District Council (SSDC), albeit not Chief Executive.
Also whilst being employed by SSDC, Ms Pestell has been involved with running her family vineyard, Melbury Vale in Dorset. The website describes her role thus (see https://mvwinery.co.uk/about-us/ ): “Clare and Glynn now run the overall business, that has evolved in recent years, with Clare as winemaker and distiller. This includes a holiday-let in a converted stable at Melbury Vale Farm and 3 giant timber barrels for glamping at the winery. There is also an English native woodland, DIY livery, Christmas tree plantation and the Melbury Vale Vineyard and cider orchard.“
Back at SSDC, her exact role remains a mystery. We have repeatedly asked questions of SSDC as to what her role at the council was. We have been consistently blocked. It got to the point when on 20 August we simply asked the Communications team if Ms Pestell was or was not an employee. They declined to answer. We asked what her role at SSDC was, still no response.
Remember if Ms Pestell was being employed, it would be employment paid for with public money. Do the public had the right to know what her role was? Apparently not.
Meanwhile Ms Pestell remains on the council’s organisation chart whilst being unavailable via her usual council contact details. However over the weekend we noticed that she has now resigned all six of her SSDC directorships. The resignations were recorded as being on 21 October and were filed on 29 October.
She had previously been on the board of:
- SSDC Business Solutions Ltd
- Cherry Orchard Management Company Ltd
- Fareham Energy Reserve Ltd
- Elleston Services Ltd
- SSDC Opium Power Ltd
- Fareham Energy Reserve 2 Ltd
Her resignation leaves questions over SSDC’s management control over the three battery companies it operates in partnership with Opium Power. SSDC is supposed to have management control, and previously had three out of five directors on the board. Now that leaves the management of each company split 50:50 between Opium and SSDC.
And even bigger questions as to what Ms Pestell’s exact role is, if indeed she is employed at all, at SSDC.
Why are the public not told of what is going on? I can only conclude that, in view of the secrecy, there is something to hide and the LibDems are covering up something untoward, or is history repeating itself with negotiations going on for another big payoff?
Disgusting. Are there any honest polititians local or national?
Why not do an FOI request as it is clearly in the public interest. If they won’t reply then contact the Information Commissioner as then SSDC can be forced to reveal at least if she still works there!
It is a great theory. Unfortunately SSDCs track record on FoIs is so poor it is almost pointless. They routinely take longer than 20 days and often by the time they respond the question asked has been overtaken by events….
I have also tried a number of times and concur with Andrew Lee – it is very time-consuming and responses take for ever. Still, I bash on….
If what I read in the latest Private Eye magazine raises questions about the conduct of the previous Chief Executive Clare Pestell. If they are correct and valid what action has been taken by the District Council. If they are not then I expect the Council to refute the statements alleging misuse of my councils funds/staff. If she has been found guilty of gross misconduct whilst in office was she dismissed from SSDC employment and what public funding if any were the financial terms of her dismissal
I am guessing you didn’t see the January edition of The Leveller® which carried the full story over 7 pages? The Eye also included a piece last issue also using material which we shared with them.