Another clerk leaves Chard
The town council meeting for Chard was cancelled this week at short notice. Scheduled for Tuesday 4 October, the meeting had to be called off after the clerk, Paul Russell, resigned. Mr Russell had been Town Clerk since 2022.
There seems to be a problem with clerks at Chard Town Council. By our count there have now been 6 town clerks in the space of ten years. No-one stays in post very long.
That leaves two possibilities. One that the selection process for town clerks is flawed and they keep choosing the wrong candidates. Or two, there’s something toxic in the working environment for the town clerk.
Whichever the answer is, it is not encouraging for the town’s taxpayers.
Update
Since writing this piece we have received a lot of information from the public about bullying behaviour surrounding certain members of the town council .
The Leveller would like to hear from anyone – in strict confidence – who can offer more evidence of this sort of behaviour.
We would also like to hear from people who complained to the Monitoring Officer at SSDC.
Please contact us at levellereditor@gmail.com