Council CEO shares ‘strong desire’ to work with Durham Reform leaders

Local party leader Andrew Husband and deputy, Darren Grimes, recently met with Durham County Council’s council’s chief executive, John Hewitt, to discuss how members and officers can collaborate over the next four years. 

The new councillors are set to be tasked with running the local authority following a vote at Durham County Council’s annual meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, May 21). 

Reform UK was criticised after the local elections earlier this month when Nigel Farage warned that council staff working on diversity or climate change initiatives should seek “alternative careers”. 

Yet, last week, Cllr Husband said it would be “naive” to make drastic decisions and vast redundancies. 

Ahead of this week’s crucial meeting, where Reform’s considerable overall majority of 65 councillors will be on show, Cllr Husband said his party has a clear list of objectives it wants to achieve while in power. 

That means reviewing existing spending, investment and masterplans, he says, as well as looking at whether the council is up to scratch on the basics. 

Following the meeting with the chief executive, Cllr Husband added: “We have held very positive discussions with John Hewitt, the chief executive of the council, about our ambitions to ensure we provide the best possible services and deliver value for money. These are ambitions shared by the senior team at the council and we are keen to work together for the benefit of the residents and businesses of this fantastic county.

“We do want to take some time to review the existing contractual commitments of the council and to set out our own priorities. We will work closely with John and the senior team to gain a full understanding of the current position and to set out our plans for the future.”

Nigel Farage previously criticised the management of the council and its finances on a visit to County Durham in April, singling out the high salaries paid to executives at the local authority. 

Vowing to cut wasteful expenditure, he said: “Decades of mismanagement, hundreds of millions of pounds of wasted taxpayers’ money, CEOs on salaries magnitudes higher than the British Prime Minister, eye-watering debts spiralling out of control – it’s all there in black and white.

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“Durham Council’s CEO earns over £213,000 a year – £46,000 more than the Prime Minister – to oversee this mess.”

Ahead of tomorrow’s council meeting, John Hewitt said: “Myself and the senior team look forward to working in partnership with the new political leadership of the council. I know from speaking to Cllr Husband that there is a great appetite to ensure the services we provide are the best they can be and a strong desire to work in partnership with our staff to deliver priorities for local people.

“We have also discussed the challenging financial position facing the council and the wider reform of the local government funding system that is necessary to ensure County Durham receives its fair share of government funding.”