THURROCK Council's chief executive has landed a non executive directorship with the College of Policing, a professional body for everyone working across policing in the UK.

As a non executive director Lyn Carpenter will be entitled to earn between £250 and £300 a day while engaged in work for the college. She is expected to work at least two days a month.

That will be in addition of her quarter million pound annual salary package at the council.

Ms Carpenter, who has gained a reputation for secrecy and micro-management of staff and has instigated policies including searching staff and councillors' emails, will be given responsibility for 'whistleblowing' policies which the college shares with police forces across the country.

As well as reducing media liaison since joining Thurrock Council in September 2015 she has instigated several internal witch-hunts to try and find out who leaked vital documents to the media.

Most notably she and the council's executive team sought to find the source of information released to the press led to an independent inquiry into council children's services following the death of a toddler in its care.

Ms Carpenter's response was to authorise two complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organisation against the former Thurrock Independent newspaper - a forerunner of Thurrock Nub News.

The complaints were thrown out and the council's practices questioned press watchdog which was critical of the way it responded to the media.

The Thurrock Independent branded the council, under Ms Carpenter's leadership, one guilty of 'secrecy and contempt' for residents, democracy, media and transparency.

In response Ms Carpenter banned officers from responding to Thurrock Independent questions, personally naming editor Neil Speight.

The ban was lifted after national and regional media articles. In December last year the council issued a ban on answering Nub News questions after our stories exposed a number of compromising situations and botched projects run by the council.

In August 2018 satirical magazine Private Eye 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".

Part of her role with the Policing College is to show the 'right level of accountability and transparency to win the confidence of the public, police services, policing partners and Parliament'.

The job specification adds: "As a holder of a public office in the College of Policing, Board members are expected to follow the College's Code of Ethics - A Code of Practice for the Principles and Standards of Professional Behaviour for the Policing Profession of England and Wales. The Code includes the Seven Principles of Public Life, as set out by the Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life, and members are expected to observe the highest standards of propriety involving impartiality, integrity and objectivity."

Thurrock Council's commitment to those principles was questioned at the most recent meeting of the full council.

In 2020 Ms Carpenter was condemned by councillors for refusing to attend a meeting to answer questions about the council's major botched infrastructure projects including the multi-million pound overspent A13 widening project.

And Ms Carpenter is currently guiding the council through a protracted legal battle with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in a bid to maintain its financial investment secrets.

In addition to her position with the council, Ms Carpenter's other 'extra curricular activities' have included being a board member of Lampton 360 Ltd, a company owned by the London Borough of Hounslow with the objective of trading local authority functions for profit.

She is also is part of the Association of South Essex Local Authorities Board (ASELA) and South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) where she leads on the Creative Industries and Green Blue agenda for South Essex.

And Ms Carpenter has served as a member of the national Society of Local Authority Chief Executives Board (SOLACE).

Outside the work environment, Ms Carpenter has had more than 40 years' involvement in netball – contributing as a player, coach, administrator and volunteer. She was chair of Netball Europe, a volunteer role she held for 14 years and more recently appointed on to the International Netball Federation Board as Regional Director to support the delivery and development of netball globally.