York council leader Keith Aspden hits back at Labour in row over '£400k pay-off'

Labour councillor Pete Kilbane accused Coun Keith Aspden, the Liberal Democrat boss of City of York Council, of not answering questions related to previous reports that the council chief executive Mary Weastell may have taken early retirement and what was understood to be a £400,000 settlement.

It was also understood Ms Weastell was planning to take the council to an employment tribunal.

The minutes of a privately-held staffing matters and urgency committee on February 17 said a senior staff member’s request for early retirement was agreed.

Coun Aspden said yesterday that he did respond to Coun Kilbane, with his email detailing that the meeting only came to an “in principle decision” which is yet to be signed-off by human resources, and that certain information could not be legally shared.

He said that the council leader has refused to answer a number of questions that are of “significant public interest”.

One question the Micklegate councillor asked Coun Aspden was “what actions he himself took as leader to address the underlying causes of the Chief Executive’s sickness absence in order to support her return to work”, but says he received “no answer”.

He added: “I asked if Employment Tribunal proceedings had been issued against the Council, as has been reported, and if so, were any claims made against Coun Aspden personally. No answer.

“The silence around the reported senior officer payoff is deafening.”

Coun Aspden yesterday told The Yorkshire Post that he responded to Coun Kilbane within two days, and offered to set up and attend a meeting with the Labour man, himself, the council’s monitoring officer and the head of human resources.

In the email, shared with the Post, Coun Aspden does not directly address points raised about Ms Weastell.

“It is incredibly disappointing that the Labour Group are choosing to continue to play party politics with an individual HR issue,” Coun Aspden told the Post.

He added: “It is rightly frustrating, but advice from officers remains the same – as these issues relate to an individual member of staff, and because of employment law and Human Resources processes, certain information cannot be shared at this stage.”

The council was also approached to comment on the claims about the settlement and employment tribunal plans.

Head of communications Claire Foale said that “it is not appropriate for us to comment as we do not share information about individuals”.