Middlesbrough Council chief says staff bullied by politicians

Staff at Middlesbrough Council are coerced, bullied and intimidated by politicians, the authority's chief executive has said.

Tony Parkinson was speaking out after an audit found a "pervasive lack of trust" at the council.

Addressing the council's corporate affairs and audit committee, Mr Parkinson said officers were "sometimes disrespected and ignored".

Councillors called for an end to finger-pointing and the "blame game".

An independent audit of 2020-21 ordered the council to improve its culture, but Mr Parkinson said he believed it was likely the follow-up for 2021-22 would conclude the situation is worsening according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

When asked by the committee how unusual a report of this nature was, Ernst and Young auditor Stephen Reid said: "I have tried to make it explicitly clear the seriousness of the report and its content.

"I don't issue many reports like this."

One of the issues raised in the report was how officers insufficiently challenged issues when it was known councillors had strayed into operational matters.

Mr Parkinson told the committee council officers had not always felt able to "challenge" councillors due to the "culture where officers are sometimes disrespected, sometimes ignored, there are sometimes attempts to coerce them, bully them, and intimidate them".

Mr Parkinson and the council's finance boss Ian Wright have refused to sign the annual governance statement until the sheer size and scale of change required is acknowledged and the issues are accepted.

He added: "I am not prepared to risk my credibility and I am not prepared to be involved in what I would consider to be a dereliction of duty by signing a document that I don't think will deliver improvement."

Professional accountancy body CIPFA has been appointed by the council to complete a short piece of work over six weeks which will engage with members across all parties, although Mr Parkinson said he feared the issues were too deep rooted to be resolved so swiftly.

During the meeting, Conservative deputy mayor Mieka Smiles said finger-pointing had to stop while Mick Saunders, leader of the Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association, said the blame game between politicians needed to end.

Mayor Andy Preston has previously acknowledged there was a "toxic culture" at the council and said some councillors "selfish and lazy".

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