Thanet District Council must rebuild its reputation after a number of corruption scandals, a review by the Local Government Association (LGA) has found.
The LGA’s corporate peer challenge said ‘sustained and rapid improvement’ in this area was ‘critically important’.
A letter to the council’s chief executive, Sue McGonigal, on behalf of the peer challenge team, read: ‘We heard some views that implied that the council’s reputational difficulties were entirely the result of the behaviour of a small number of councillors.
‘While we agree that some of those behaviours are extremely corrosive, we witnessed the poor behaviours of many other councillors during our visit.
‘Barracking, bullying and talking over others are behaviours which also damage the council’s reputation.’
The letter added that distrust remained between officers and some members, and recommended that more work was need to clarify the council’s top priorities.
Chief executive of Thanet District Council, Sue McGonigal, said: ‘We’re putting together an action plan to take forward the LGA’s recommendations and are confident that this process will help us to make positive changes as part of our commitment to continuous improvement and to make the council a better organisation overall.’
