ONE of the senior directors of Thurrock Council who was in post as it crashed into a billion pound debt crisis has walked into another top local authority job.

Karen Wheeler joined Thurrock Council in February 2015 as its head of Strategy and Communications.

Under the leadership of chief executive Lyn Carpenter, who also joined the council in 2015, she rose through the ranks, becoming Head of Strategy, Communications and Customer Services for 11 months before being further promoted to director level.

From April 2021 she was Director of Strategy, Engagement and Growth - a role with a salary of more than £110,000. 

Throughout her time at Thurrock Council Ms Wheeler was at the epicentre of the council's secretive policies as it battled attempts by journalists, including Thurrock Nub News and and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, to drill down and expose the truth about its actions and processes.

During her earlier years in power, she twice reported current Thurrock Nub News editor Neil Speight to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), in a bid to gag him, as editor of the print newspaper the Thurrock Independent, for exposing a number of failings within the council.

Karen Wheeler led the comms team at Thurrock Council that triend to gag the media investigating failures within the authority and twice took Thurrock Independent editor Neil Speight to IPSO.

The first article was headlined 'Council of secrecy and contempt' published on 25 January 2018. The story and associated comment said the council "refuses to answer questions about its waste, incompetence and accountability".

The second was an article headlined "The Sound of Silence", published on 26 April 2018.The article detailed allegations made in a whistleblowing letter concerning "bullying, malpractice, negligence and nepotism" in Thurrock Council.

After detailed investigations by IPSO both complaints were rejected. 

In response Ms Wheeler implemented a ban, instructing her press department not to answer any questions from Mr Speight.

In Septmber 2022, after its catastrophic financial collapse, Thurrock Council was put under intervention by the government, which later produced, through commissioners, a Best Value Report (BVI).

In it the council's commitment to secrecy was highlighted. The report says: "In Thurrock Council, poor performance has regularly been responded to with an urge to restrict knowledge of its existence, conceal it, or find ways to explain it away. All of these tactics are not only intrinsically wrong in themselves, they diminish the integrity of the authority."

The 110 page report damned a variety of actions by the council, many of which came under Ms Wheeler's directorate responsibility. 

In 2021 the council's communications strategy, championed by Ms Wheeler, was condemned by an LGA Peer Review. Many of its recommendations should have been implemented on Ms Wheeler's watch, they were not. 

Without any announcement, in September last year, as new Chief Executive Dr David Smith reorganised his team, Ms Wheeler left the council. No details were given about the terms and conditions of her departure - she was one of a number of directors and heads of department to leave. The council declined to give details of any financial packages that had been arranged and would not confirm if any outgoing officers had been 'sacked'.

In June this year Ms Wheeler was appointed interim director of Policy and Change at Cheshire East Council and last month it was announced she would become interim Assistant Chief Executive at a salary that was advertised as between £85,883 and £115,826.

She has joined a council which is predicting a £20m overspend at the end of this financial year, is slashing services including closing tips, reducing library opening hours, hiking up fees such as parking charges and green bin collection costs and introducing three-weekly bin collections in 2026.

Karen Wheeler is part of the top team at cash-strapped regional council

To mark her appointment, Ms Wheeler took to the 'Think Digital Partners website' where she was interviewed about her role - and her experiences of leading change in local government.

She does not mention her role at Thurrock, but says: "I was made redundant last year following a senior management restructure which gave me an opportunity to take a break, hang out with my teenage sons and reflect on what I wanted to do next. This resulted in a renewed confidence and the interim role I've been doing in Cheshire East for the last six months."

She described the last 12 months as 'a bit of a rollercoaster'.

Thurrock Nub News understands, through sources within Thurrock Council, that it was not asked to give any reference regarding Ms Wheeler's abilities - nor her role with the authority.

Ms Wheeler started her career as a research assistant with Herts Police in 1997, moving two years later to be a research oficer with the City of London Police, She then joined St Albans City and District Council and then moved to Barking and Dagenham Council before joining Thurock.