Labour call to suspend city chief executive

Jul 18 2008 EXCLUSIVE by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

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LIVERPOOL’S main opposition Labour Party has demanded the suspension of city council chief executive Colin Hilton, the Daily Post can reveal.

Labour leader Joe Anderson has written to the city solicitor Michael Kenworthy to ask that Mr Hilton be suspended and an investigation launched into his conduct.

Cllr Anderson’s unprecedented letter claims a number of failings by the £220,000-a-year chief executive and suggests a serious breakdown in the relationship between the two men.

Under council rules the complaint will be referred to the council’s appointments and disciplinary panel, which will meet on Friday, July 25 and is usually made up of four Lib Dems and three Labour councillors.

One council source last night defended Mr Hilton, 52, widely credited with transforming the city’s education service, as a man "of the highest integrity" while Cllr Anderson said he had not taken the decision to ask for Mr Hilton’s suspension lightly.

"It is more in sorrow than in anger that I have taken this decision," he said.

Deputy council leader Flo Clucas said while she could not comment on the complaint she thought it "disgraceful" the way Cllr Anderson had voiced his concerns in the public domain.

Mr Hilton, who was regarded as "a safe pair of hands" following the damaging breakdown between former council leader Mike Storey and ex-chief executive Sir David Henshaw, has been in position since June 2006.