Northamptonshire County Council: Former leader resigns

A former leader of what was dubbed the country's "worst-run council" has resigned as a councillor.

Heather Smith quit as Northamptonshire County Council leader in March after a report recommended it be scrapped after it ran out of money.

In a resignation letter for Oundle, Ms Smith said it was time to put "horrendous events of 2018" behind her and to "move on".

It means a by-election for an authority which is due to be axed in 2020.

Last year the authority banned itself from spending any further funds.

In an email sent to the council's monitoring officer, Susan Zeiss, on the evening of 31 December, Ms Smith said: "I do not believe my presence will serve any useful purpose anymore to the council."

She also claimed to have suffered "shameful bullying" by Northamptonshire's MPs, who called for government commissioners to be brought in to oversee the authority when she was leader.

Those commissioners remain in place, and the government has since also begun overseeing children's services at the council, after a report found people in its care were at "potential risk".

Northamptonshire County Council was forced to ban all new spending in February, and then again in July, because of "severe financial challenges" and Kettering MP Philip Hollobone said it had become "the worst run in the country".

The authority plans to cut spending on agency staff and highways services, while boosting tax receipts, to tackle a £65m funding shortfall.

Theresa Grant, who became chief executive at the end of July, said the authority had suffered from "poor leadership historically" and warned there may be further service cuts to "balance the books".

The Conservative-led authority - and the county's seven other councils - are expected to be replaced with two, new, unitary ones in 2020.