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Author: Sally Perry

Mark Chiverton Left Bemused and Devastated (podcast)

3:58 pm Wednesday, 3rd February, 2010, Isle of Wight

ShortURL: http://wig.ht/26RV
Read More- Island-wide, Isle of Wight Council, News, Politics, podcast

Following Steve Beynon’s insistence that Mark Chiverton was not told to stand down from his candidature as Labour MP or resign from his post at the council, we spoke with Mark this afternoon.

On a crackly telephone line, he told us that after the meeting he’d had with a senior council officer, which left him “bemused and devastated”, he subsequently emailed the senior officer, putting back the proposition, first reported this morning, which has never been denied.

He went on to say that his standing as a parliamentary candidate was cleared by the previous Chief Exec, Joe Duckworth, two and a half years ago.

Clearly concerned by the situation he told VB that this was the “most worrying week for me and my family for my entire 37 year working career.”

Mark has much more to say, listen to the podcast by clicking on the play button below.

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Update: It might be useful to point out that as far as we’re aware, this action has nothing to do with The Leader or any other councillors.

This should be a matter between Mark and the council officers involved.

The handling of staff and day-to-day running of the council is down to the officers … and councillors are strictly forbidden to be involved with the execution. Their role is to set policy.

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42 readers' comments to the “Mark Chiverton Left Bemused and Devastated (podcast)” story

  1. +13 Click if you like this comment Shobba     says:
    3, February 2010 at 4:43 pm

    Shocking. This sounds to me like a rapid back pedal by some spineless (possibly lying) fool at County Hall.
    Mr Chiverton is the Unison rep and very well liked. To do this is to him now is pretty low. This man has only fairly recently lost his wife and as far as I know, is raising his children alone. It beggars belief.

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  2. +12 Click if you like this comment Anna     says:
    3, February 2010 at 4:45 pm

    Poor bloke. It must have been very frightening – even more so with the reputation of this Council for underhand and bullying behaviour against staff.

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  3. +5 Click if you like this comment John     says:
    3, February 2010 at 9:51 pm

    The rumour mill is turning and the story is that Mr Pugh will be out of a job before the end of the month.Fact.

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  4. +1 Click if you like this comment Meursault     says:
    3, February 2010 at 10:47 pm

    Maybe all this really is a twisted ‘Coup de Pugh’…

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  5. +5 Click if you like this comment L PINKERTON     says:
    3, February 2010 at 11:24 pm

    Having known and worked with Mark for 30 years I trust his version of events as being honest and true.

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    • +2 Click if you like this comment blog watcher       says:
      5, February 2010 at 9:15 pm

      Well according to Cllr Ian Ward (http://ianward.blogspot.com/) on 29th Jan he said ……we don’t want to raise council tax by any more than we need to. We are trying to close that gap by making things more efficient and reviewing closely what services we provide and what we needn’t spend money upon, like giving money to trade unions to pay for their union reps!! The Council is not broke and is not in any sort of financial trouble…. Sounds to me like he knew they were leaning on Mark!

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  6. +10 Click if you like this comment jackie     says:
    4, February 2010 at 9:51 am

    Mark is one of the kindest men I’ve ever met. He has more compassion in his big toe than the entire tory council put together.
    Chin up Mark, the ordinary people of the Island are with you. This is an appalling show of dictatorship.

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  7. +8 Click if you like this comment Rush     says:
    4, February 2010 at 10:04 am

    Conservative Central Office will not approve of this action by Pugh who will be a liability to the party.

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  8. +3 Click if you like this comment mrs.A     says:
    4, February 2010 at 10:27 am

    Can’t he report Pugh to the standards Board for this?

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  9. +4 Click if you like this comment Sal     says:
    4, February 2010 at 10:42 am

    It might be useful to point out that as far as we’re aware, this action has nothing to do with The Leader or any other councillors.

    This should be a matter between Mark and the council officers involved.

    The handling of staff and day-to-day running of the council is down to the officers … and councillors are strictly forbidden to be involved with the execution. Their role is to set policy.

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    Reply to this comment
  10. +2 Click if you like this comment kevin murphy     says:
    4, February 2010 at 2:20 pm

    i would have thought there would be national guidelines for an employee to take out time to stand at an election and return to work after if that person didnot win the seat.
    a council with national standards would permit this,maybe its the national standards which is confusing to them.

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  11. +2 Click if you like this comment Moley     says:
    4, February 2010 at 6:23 pm

    sorry typo….meaning redundancies in at least one voluntary service known about ..

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  12. +4 Click if you like this comment Shobba     says:
    4, February 2010 at 7:18 pm

    The present council is collapsing before our very eyes and I blame lack of experience for much of it. The old guard Tories on the island have to step in, someone else should take command before the week ends.

    A new experienced Chief Exec (for the long term please) should be top of the to-do list for a new mature Leader. Let’s hope this happens quickly. Mr Pugh should go back to the stationery shop counter where he came from. I just can’t see him being able to blow his trumpet for a good few years having made such a mess of things at County Hall. He needs a behind the scenes job.

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