Paul Carter: Emperor of Kent

Katherine Kerswell "Group MD" of KCC has left her £197k post. [Oh, no she hasn't! Oh, yes she has! Oh, let's see what KCC's press release says. Oh, let's not bother.] Initial rumours had Paul Carter as Leader and MD - probably not legal, and certainly not advisable. Later rumours had it that the post may simply be left vacant, as a money saving option. Either way, Cllr Carter will be the biggest fish in the pond for a while yet.

It appears that Ms Kerswell was doomed as a result of ruffling too many feathers in her reorganisation of KCC, so the Tory back-benchers conspired to oust her. Her pay-off is too large for anyone to talk about.

Another interesting idea being put about is that the recent KCC Tory leadership contest was decided on the basis of which candidate looked most likely to return Ms Kerswell to the strawberry fields of Northamptonshire. Looks like that's one pledge Paul Carter has delivered on... [rolling updates on this story...]

Here's what they said when they were all friends:

Later...

The plot thickens:

and then...

A public statement put together too hastily to have time to think of a page title:

Hmmm... What do you think happened?

Comments

[Igloo]

If they've left the post vacant does this not prove that she didn't do anything?

[HBM]

Me, I think it might be a "compromise agreement"... Have a bucketful of money now, and keep your mouth shut forever.

[Local businesswoman]

Hmmm...I love the carefulness of that statement. It doesn't say "It's all nonsense. She's here at her desk now. We've no idea what people are talking about."

Might it be true to suggest that KCC has reached a financial and legal agreement with Ms Kerswell which pays her to go away if she says nothing about it in public? If that's the case, someone really ought to be taking a careful look at KCC's abysmal track record of hiring its top management team. They come, they get paid a lot....and then they leave before their contract is up, having been paid a lot of public money to go away again. Maybe the KCC top management team is a particularly difficult place to work? Why might that be so?