At last Thursday’s full Harrow Borough Council meeting, the Labour administration under its part-time leader Councillor David Perry, voted through the reappointment of Michael Lockwood as chief executive at a cost of £1million over four years.

Did Harrow actually need a chief executive? Well, not according to the council’s own auditor Deloitte, who in its recent annual report said: “There have been no instances of control weakness identified during our detailed audit work as a result of the deletion of the CEO post.”

Deloitte also considered the threat the deletion of the CEO post would have to the authority achieving ongoing value for money and concluded: “We are satisfied the responsibilities of the new post holder (the head of paid services) satisfied those risks.”

What did Labour say about this report? Cllr Barry Kendler rubbished it and questioned the integrity and impartiality of Deloitte, a world-renowned audit, tax and consulting firm.

For all their talk of consultation, Labour didn’t ask Harrow residents what they thought about bringing back the role — they asked staff, but fewer than ten per cent responded.

So the only indication of what residents really thought was a poll in this newspaper — showing 66 per cent of residents against it.

Of course, maybe there’s such a void in his own Labour ranks that Cllr Perry feels he needs help. But at a cost to the taxpayer of around £1m, residents can be forgiven for asking whether that’s a good enough reason.

Cllr Stephen Wright

Con/Pinner ward Harrow Borough Council