A SENIOR officer of the council responsible for its legal affairs and monitoring procedures has left the authority.

As exclusively reported on Thurrock Nub News earlier this month, the fate of assistant director and legal and monitoring officer Ian Hunt was due to decided by a group of senior councillors.

They met to discuss his fate and consider a recommendation from other high-ranking officers that Mr Hunt leave the council.

And the outcome has been his departure.

The council, which has announced it will no longer 'engage' with Nub News or answer our questions about its affairs, is believed to have made a substantive five figure payment to Mr Hunt, who was in office for barely a year.

No details have been announced publicly, nor minutes published, following the meeting of the council's general services committee but an informed source from within the council hierarchy has confirmed his departure. His salary was around the £100,000 mark.

Previous payments made by the council to senior officers who have departed after their performance came under scrutiny have ranged from tens of thousands to a high of £450,000!

Since his appointment Mr Hunt has been closely associated with a number of decisions in which the council's integrity and compliance with its constitution and local government law has been questioned.

Recently an important meeting of the cabinet was cancelled minutes before it was due to start after Nub News pointed out it was not legally compliant, one of the responsibilities of Mr Hunt and his team.

Several councillors have also publicly complained about a lack of response on legal matters and directives from Mr Hunt's office that they felt were unfair.