MYSTERY surrounds the sudden resignation of three senior officials who deal with the region’s rubbish.
A wall of silence has descended over Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (MWDA) since the top-level departures.
But senior councillors are now calling for answers.
Authority clerk Carole Hudson, monitoring officer Peter Blackburn and treasurer Ian Roberts handed in their notices en masse last month. They had served the authority since the mid-1980s.
The trio are also officers at the top of St Helens council. Ms Hudson is St Helens’s chief executive, and Mr Blackburn the legal director, while Mr Roberts runs the finance department. There is no indication they will step down from those jobs.
Both MWDA and St Helens refused to comment on the reasons for the resignations.
Their departure comes at a crunch time for MWDA. The organisation is in a race against time to find sites for two controversial 100,000-tonne waste processing plants, which will house incinerators.
MWDA director Carl Beer warned in August any delay in procuring the sites could lead to a £400m surge in costs.
Cllr Berni Turner, below, Liverpool City Council’s executive member for the environment, and a former member of MWDA, said: “I would like to know what’s happened here. In a fair and open and democratic society, it needs to be shared.”
Knowsley councillor Dave Lonegan posted a formal question to Mr Beer asking why the officers wanted to quit.
But, at an authority meeting at the end of September – attended by at least two of the officers – Mr Beer said he did not know.
Cllr Lonegan told the Daily Post: “The question was submitted in writing in the normal way. Neither the chair nor the director knew the reason why.
“When I tried to press it further, I was reminded under procedural rules members are not allowed to push further on answers.
“Obviously, I’m really concerned about it, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked about it. But I’m totally at a loss.”
Puzzled authority members are now privately debating about what could lay behind the departures.
One theory gaining currency is the officers could have been facing a conflict of interest over the site of the incinerators. The MWDA may have been moving closer to choosing a St Helens location, but Ms Hudson did not want to be seen pushing forward with a plan that would curry little favour on home soil.
Councils across Merseyside are considering 11 potential incinerator sites put forward by Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service. One of the sites was land north of Hays Chemicals on Lancots Lane, St Helens.
A spokesperson for MWDA said in a statement: “The Šdirector, officers and elected members of the authority would like to thank Carole, Peter and Ian for their excellent service and hard work for this authority, as well as their invaluable advice and guidance provided over the past years.
“They will continue in their roles as valuable officers of the authority until November, 2008.
“This does not affect the running of the authority or indeed officer roles, work or projects.”
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