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  • "
    bigfoot wrote:
    I would consider applying but the time in hospital would delay matters. That is having a lobotomy, a spine removal and a charisma by-pass,some of the pre-requisites!
    Well Bigfoot has it right with the qualifications! PLEASE lets have someone as CEO who has the right qualifications, has a good track record, is not afraid to lead & change, and above all will he sack the officers who have over the past few years not 'performed' or got to big for the boots they wear, and by God there are many of them. Look at the officers, look at the qualifications they have, and then ask yourself why are they in that job. That CEO needs to have a support network, but none of the officers who are employed at the moment are up to the job. You only have to look week in and week out the wrong doings, the AKA report the latest HES contract, the bad press and the spin, the list is so long it would fill your paper. Look at all the comments you have had on Wilkie, Green, Foulkes etc will somebody somewhere sit up and take notice. I thought that with someone sent to steady the ship from the LGA might have helped, but I think its too deep rooted. The next step is up to the Government, and unless some dramatic changes happen in the next few weeks then perhpas Government intervention will be the only answer. Let the whistleblowers start and 'blow' open once and for all the rest of the goings on. (As long as they 'are not a bit mad') then things might improve, and we can then move on and the Council can get on with the job in hand. I can dream can't I?"
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Wirral council chief leaves

Jim Wilkie Jim Wilkie

JIM Wilkie – Wirral Council's chief executive – departed from the authority last night after taking early voluntary retirement.

His departure was rubber-stamped at a short meeting of the council's employment and appointments committee.

Five hours later, just after midnight, an embargoed Audit Commission "public interest" report highlighting serious issues over a multi-million pound highways contract was released.

Mr Wilkie, 58, had been on sick leave since February. He was only appointed chief executive a year ago, having previously been deputy chief executive.

He was elevated to the top job after his predecessor Steve Maddox himself took early voluntary retirement shortly before independent consultant Anna Klonowski began her inquiries into the abuse of vulnerable adults, an first issue highlighted by the Globe in November 2008 after we were approached by adult social services whistleblower Martin Morton.

The council will pay more than £95,000 into Mr Wilkie's pension fund.

It is not yet clear if he will also receive three months' worth of his £132,000 salary in lieu of notice.

At the employment and appointments committee, the three Conservative group members opposed signing-off his early retirement.

They were defeated by the five Labour members and one Liberal Democrat, who approved Mr Wilkie’s early retirement.

His departure from the authority was active immediately.

Tory group leader Cllr Jeff Green said Mr Wilkie still had not offered an explanation as to why two senior adult social services workers were allowed to leave the authority less than 24 hours before the damning Klonowski report was published in January.

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