EX-COUNCIL CHIEF'S CLAIMS SPARK FRESH CONTROVERSY IN CITY

29 May 2006

The former top boss at Swansea Council is continuing to cause controversy almost six months after quitting his £120,000-a-year post. Tim Thorogood (pictured) walked away from the post in January with a pay-off worth £60,000 after councillors agreed to investigate a breach of planning rules at his Rhossili home.

He has now angered local councillors after describing the authority as failing.

Mr Thorogood is set to join London-based thinktank the Local Government Information Unit this summer and has given a number of interviews to London-based magazines.

In one he claimed that the planning breaches at his home amounted to nothing more than a few extra windows.Planning officers at Swansea Council viewed the garage and found he had added a kitchen without permission.

It was also discovered that his wife was looking into the possibility of advertising the garage as a holiday home on Swansea Council's tourism website.

Councillors are understood to be angry that he has told the Municipal Journal that he was recruited by a failing authority.

When he arrived in 2003 the council was officially classed as a middle-ranking authority.

Despite the fact that Swansea was not a failing authority Mr Thorogood told the Municipal Journal: "The remit I had at Swansea was to turn a failing organisation into one which was successful.

"My other task was to revitalise regeneration of the city."

Councillors are also unhappy about claims in the article that one of Mr Thorogood's achievements while in Swansea was the Liberty Stadium, despite the fact that work on the ground began two years before he took on his role.

When he left the post, he negotiated a generous package and is understood to have agreed a deal with the council to not discuss the matter in public.

One Swansea councillor, who didn't want to be identified, said: "There are a lot of people unhappy with his comments regarding Swansea in recent interviews.

"Apparently some top-level Swansea council officers have written letters to the magazines expressing their disappointment."

POLITICIANS AND POST BLAMED FOR JOB QUIT DECISION

19 May 2006

Swansea Council's former top boss has blamed politicians and the Evening Post for his sudden departure from his £120,000-a-year job. Tim Thorogood quit his role as chief executive in January after councillors decided he did have a case to answer in a planning row at his Rhossili home.

Mr Thorogood has now taken a £30,000 pay cut to join the Local Government Information Unit as its chief executive.

In an interview for a local government magazine, Mr Thorogood explains for the first time his reasons for leaving Swansea.

In the interview he claims that he was picked on because of his position and said the planning breaches on his garage amounted to nothing more than a few extra panes of glass.

He said: "It's true that in the context of a couple of windows, it didn't [have planning permission]. For any other person it wouldn't have created an issue."

Mr Thorogood and his wife Alison, a senior planning officer with Neath Port Talbot Council, applied for permission to upgrade their garage with a workshop in September 2004.

Following the start of work, Mr Thorogood asked about changing the plans and was told he had to submit a revised application.

However, a complaint was made that the work being carried out was going far beyond what had been agreed, so the council's own planning department launched an investigation in December 2005.

As well as discovering the extra windows, it was also found that a kitchen had been built in the garage. Throughout the process, Mrs Thorogood had been looking into the possibility of renting out the garage as a holiday home and had even inquired about advertising on the council's tourism website.

In the article for Local Government Chronicle magazine, Mr Thorogood said he decided to leave his job because he would not have been able to carry on with his programme of change for the city, which included the controversial eGovernment project, Service@Swansea.

Mr Thorogood said: "The political circumstances of the council, and inevitably the way in which politicians and the local media behaved in that situation, led one to think that, given the problem in planning, it wasn't practical for me to lead a highly visible change programme in that council."

ONLY ONE TO BLAME FOR FALL

19 May 2006 - Editorial Opinion

Extraordinary. That is the only word to describe Tim Thorogood's comments on his departure from the top job at Swansea Council as reported in the Local Government Chronicle. Mr Thorogood has no one to blame for his fall from grace as chief executive except himself.

Converting a garage in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty into a holiday home can in no way be described as just "a few extra panes of glass".

In one aspect, however, Mr Thorogood is perfectly correct. It would not have created such an issue if the householder had been anyone else.

That is not because the planning breaches were not of importance - to imply such a thing displays a lack of respect for the Gower AONB.

It is because council taxpayers have a right to expect impeccable judgement from high-ranking (and highly paid) planning authority executives in matters involving planning permission.

In the circumstances the Evening Post behaved entirely appropriately.

In fact, the reason it would not have been practical for him to lead a "highly visible change programme" was that many council taxpayers had lost confidence in him.

NEW ROLE FOR EX-CHIEF

4 May 2006

Swansea Council's former top boss has taken a £30,000 pay cut to take a role as head of a local council policy advice unit, it has emerged. Mr Thorogood walked away from his £120,000-a-year chief executive's post at Swansea Council after councillors decided to hold a full investigation into alleged planning breaches at his Rhossili home.

It has now been revealed Mr Thorogood will be taking the reins at the influential Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) - a think-tank that advises local authorities and lobbies on their behalf.Swansea Council is a registered member of the LGIU.

Mr Thorogood will join as the unit's chief executive later this summer.

He quit Swansea Council in January after being suspended from his chief executive's post in a row over a garage built at his home.

He was forced to apply for retrospective planning permission after changing the original design. It was then alleged that further changes were made and following an official complaint he was suspended.

A planned internal inquiry into his role in the matter was dropped when he left the council. In an interview for the LGIU's website, Mr Thorogood says he is looking forward to taking over from Dennis Reed when he retires.

Mr Thorogood said: "I am delighted to have been appointed the new chief executive of the LGIU, in what is both an exciting time for local government and for the unit.

"The LGIU has a strong track record of influencing policy in favour of local democratic bodies and, for me, this is an opportunity to bring my frontline experience to bear on national policy debates."

Mr Thorogood, who was given a package worth £60,000 when he left Swansea Council, is expected to pick up around £90,000 a year from the London-based LGIU.

Dave Wilcox, chairman of the LGIU, said: "Tim Thorogood is an exciting choice for the unit, chosen from a strong field of candidates."His experience and track record of success will help the LGIU continue to provide highly valued services to local authorities of all types and political persuasions.

"We are all looking forward to working with Tim and supporting him as he steers the organisation into its next phase of development."