THE domineering, controversial and at times caustic reign of Thurrock Council chief executive Lyn Carpenter is now officially over.

At an extraordinary meeting of the council's cabinet this evening (Wednesday, 14 December), its leader Cllr Mark Coxshall announced he had accepted the resignation of the CEO whose seven years and four months at the now cash-strapped, bankrupt authority has been pock-marked with polemic incidents.

In her time at the helm a significant number of respected senior officers have left the authority, she clashed repeatedly with the media and imposed a veil of secrecy over all of its activities which included diminishing elected members' opportunity to challenge her rule. And – most damningly – she presided over the calamitous borrowing strategy that has brought the council to its knees, from where it is now pointing a begging bowl at the government asking for a financial bail-out of hundreds of millions.

She also repeatedly found herself at odds with borough MP Jackie Doyle-Price and it has been widely reported that the two women, both in key public positions in the borough, rarely spoke. Ms Doyle-Price has been a repeated critic of the council's secretive policies.

At least it seems that the CEO who pocketed an annual salary of around £200,000 and a pension package to match has lost her final battle.

It is no secret that, as the council's catastrophic financial position began to emerge in September, Ms Carpenter dug in and defended her position – bringing in a topflight London-based barrister to try and bludgeon a profitable settlement from the council.

As the legal bills wracked up the concern was that the council would succumb to pressure and pay her off.

However, Nub News understands that in the end Ms Carpenter's resolve faded as more and more evidence was unveiled about what had happened on her watch. And with a potentially damaging 'best value report' due in January that seems likely to damn her performance and that of other senior figures in the council, she has decided to cut and run.

Nub News has been assured by inside sources this evening that no payment other than that outlined in her contract has been made to Ms Carpenter either by way of severance or compensation, nor have her legal fees been met. We further understand that a request for a a preferential reference has been ignored.

And the door remains open to the council to hold Ms Carpeneter to account, either by a civil action or even possibly through a criminal investigation, which neither the council, the government, nor Essex Police, has ruled out.

No word has emerged this evening about the circumstances surrounding the council's chief financial officer, Sean Clark. He, like Ms Carpenter, was suspended when the government intervened but nothing further about him has since emerged.

At tonight's meeting the departure of Ms Carpenter was dismissed in a brief opening statement by Cllr Coxshall, who addressed the meeting on the 100th day of his occupancy of the top chair.

He said: "Today is a day when we put forward all details of the council's financial position.

"Frankly this picture is very grim.

"I am determined to make the tough decisions and carve out a bright future for the council, to make it the best it can be.

"So, I believe today it is appropriate for me to announce that on Monday I received a letter of resignation from the chief executive, Lyn Carpenter, which I accepted with immediate effect.

"Looking forward, I will recruit a substantive chief executive in the new year."

Lyn Carpenter ignored Cllr John Allen's plea to attend his committee and face questions.

That brought the curtain down on an era of Thurrock Council's history that is likely to be etched in shame. She was frequently criticised by borough councillors who felt she looked down on them with disdain.

Ironically her appointment was made in the dying days of the Labour administration, which lost control of the council in 2016. She quickly appeared to forge an alliance with then Conservative group leader Cllr Rob Gledhill whose collusion in the roll out of a policy of secrecy, security and spying on members' activities does no-one any credit.

The council's previous good relationship with all local media was quickly revoked, Ms Carpenter and Cllr Gledhill axed press briefings, implemented a strategy of not answering questions and effectively ripped up a longstanding communications relationship with a variety of journalists across south Essex.

Ms Carpenter exerted an iron grip on communications, demanding that all releases had to be signed off by herself and issuing instructions to staff not to engage with local journalists. Bizarrely, she was awarded a post with the Police College, leading its 'whistleblowing' strategy. 

Over the initial years of her reign, she initiated complaints against the media that were not only proven to be unfounded, but were damned by independent arbiters.

Lyn Carpenter was at the heart of Thurrock Council's secrecy policies.

Twice, following accusations that the council was in the grip of a policy of secrecy and contempt, she instructed that formal complaints were made to the Independent Press Standards Organisation against Neil Speight, then editor of the Thurrock Independent newspaper, now editor of Nub News.

Both complaints were dismissed and what followed was an apparent personal vendetta against Mr Speight which twice included bans - initiated by Ms Carpenter - prohibiting answers being given to legitimate questions by Mr Speight.

A summary of her leadership and policies is encapsulated in this story.

It is worth pointing out that some members of the Conservative administration, that are now damning Ms Carpenter, stood by and not only did nothing to combat her policies, but joined in the public rhetoric against him.

Not that Mr Speight was alone in being the target of Ms Carpenter's angst. BBC Essex reporters, national journalists and other local journalists found themselves on the end of her policy of non-communication.

Her approach to the media and democracy won her the accolade of being a target for Private Eye. In August 2018 the satirical magazine awarded Ms Carpenter its Rotton Boroughs 'Kim Jong Un Award' for secrecy, saying in its citation that she ordered the council's press office not to respond "because reporters had had the temerity to ask awkward questions".  

This evening those 'awkward questions' remain but Ms Carpenter is no longer in a position to dictate the answers.