Former Waveney District Council chief executive Glen Garrod walked away with a settlement package totalling nearly £60,000, the EDP has discovered. Mr Garrod left his post by mutual consent earlier this month after admitting he did not have the skills to turn the council's fortunes around following a series of poor reports into its performance.

Former Waveney District Council chief executive Glen Garrod walked away with a settlement package totalling nearly £60,000, the EDP has discovered.

Mr Garrod left his post by

mutual consent earlier this

month after admitting he did not have the skills to turn the council's fortunes around following a series of poor reports into its performance.

The terms of Mr Garrod's severance package were not disclosed, and councillors were only told details during a private session.

However, the EDP has learned that Mr Garrod received:

A lump sum of £50,000, representing half his annual

salary.

Another payment of £7,000, and

A mentoring and support package to help him find another job.

Last night, the deal came under fire from Waveney's Labour MP, Bob Blizzard, who said: "Once again the taxpayer has got to pay out more money that is being wasted by the Tory-led council.

"Glen Garrod has been made a scapegoat by the political leadership, and it does seem like a desperate measure."

Mr Garrod left his post after receiving a report from the Audit Commission that highlighted widespread failings in the authority's accounting and asset management.

He joined Waveney in 2005 just after the council was branded weak by the commission and later reports continued to highlight shortcomings.

Deborah Cadman will combine her role as chief executive of St Edmundsbury Borough Council, in Suffolk, with running Waveney council as an interim role until Mr Garrod's full-time successor is appointed.

However, Mr Blizzard questioned how successfully the council

would be able to push through its recovery programme in the present climate.

"I can't see how being without a full-time chief executive is going to help them to achieve that," he

said.

Mr Blizzard added that he had spoken recently to Mr Garrod about regional issues and that news of

his departure had come as a surprise.

He added: "I thought Glen Garrod was a decent bloke.

"He didn't seem like a man who was about to resign and was talking about future plans."

But Mr Blizzard's comments were condemned by Waveney council leader Mark Bee, who said: "As the MP knows, the departure was by mutual agreement after considered discussions between myself

and Glen, so any suggestion that there was a political dimension

to this is patent nonsense.

"The terms of the severance package are confidential, but I am completely satisfied that it is reasonable, and, as I said previously, comparisons with other such packages in the public and private sector reflect well on Glen as a person and underline

his personal respect for this authority.

"As far as the appointment of Deborah Cadman is concerned, the MP should get his facts right.

"As we have made perfectly clear, Deborah is only with Waveney on an interim basis prior to the recruitment of a permanent, full-time successor."

Mr Bee said he was delighted at Ms Cadman's appointment and added: "I would have thought the MP would welcome such an appointment rather than seek to undermine it and make cheap political capital."

Sally Spore, leader of the council's opposition Labour group, said it would be up to the public to judge the merits of Mr Garrod's financial settlement.