OPPOSITION councillors have questioned who runs Herefordshire Council after leader Jonathan Lester rejected the will of full council to set a new objective to the chief executive officer.

The council passed a motion without notice in July asking council leader Lester to consider an additional objective for chief executive Alistair Neill to ‘champion high standards of conduct and a strong commitment to public service throughout the council’.

However, councillor Lester said it was unnecessary as there is a similar requirement for all council employees.

But coun Anthony Powers, who proposed the motion, said the decision did not show the council in a good light.

“I’m struggling to see why this couldn’t have been included straight away as a signal of the rightness of the principle involved,” he said at full council meeting last Friday.

“Chief executives of all organisations delivering public services should take personal responsibility for ethical standards in their organisations.

“What I’m saying reflects the view of our independent person.

“I, and more importantly the public, can only wonder who really runs this council. Is it the leader, or does the chief executive lead the leader?”

Coun Lester said he was leading the council and that the requirement was ‘just superfluous’.

“It’s not that the decision to include that requirement has been overturned or somehow ignored,” he said.

“To add it in, is just superfluous. It’s already a requirement of the chief executive.

“To insinuate that that is not something that he has to do is missing the point.”

“I can tell you that in my position, I’m not retiring and I’m leading this council.”

Coun Powers said he could not recall that such a requirement was part of the chief executive’s annual objectives despite being a group leader and a member of the employment panel.