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Took up office:
30th September 2005
Her office covers the following areas: London Borough of Tower Hamlets,
City of Birmingham, Solihull MBC, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire,
Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and the North of England (except the cities of
Lancaster, Manchester and York).
Background: Before becoming Local Government Ombudsman on the 27th
October 2005, Anne Seex had been Chief Executive Officer of
Norwich City Council for five
years, joining from
Lancaster City Council where
she was Director of Community Services (1996 - 2000). She has over 25 years'
experience in local government, starting in a metropolitan borough, moving
through a district council for a new town to work for 11 years in various roles
in the Chief Executive's Department at
Manchester City Council (1985 -
1996).
Qualifications: Graduate from the
Faculty and School of Law in public life, University of
Manchester.
Memberships:
Outside interests:
Comment: Another Ombudsman that has never had a full time job outside of
local government.
Things that may make Anne Seex unfit to be a
Local Government Ombudsman
During 1999 she was involved in the unfair
dismissal of a member of staff at Lancaster City Council.
The tribunal described
the investigation by Ann Seex, director of
community services at the council, as 'coloured and flawed'.
Anne Seex was in post as Chief Executive of Norwich City Council when they
issued over 140,000 non-compliant
Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) between 2002 and 2005 (they only
corrected theirs in August 2006 issuing £3,416,452.98 worth of non-compliant
PCNs 2002 - 2006).
During 2005 she had to apologise when Norwich City Council
failed to obtain planning permission.
'Norwich City Council Chief
Executive Anne Seex admitted, in a letter sent to all City Councillors and the
local media, that the Council had broken planning regulations by not applying
for Advertisement Consent for the projections on to the City Hall clock tower.'
In March 2006, the Audit Commission published a highly critical audit letter
for Norwich City Council during Mrs Seex' last year as Chief Executive
leading
to questions about her credibility as an independent and final arbiter on
matters of maladministration in local government.
Anne Seex is well know for creative compensation, for example,
she awarded a man £1000 towards the cost of a memorial when council
maladministration contributed to the death of his mother. Ms
Seex said Mrs Stones had been "failed by the system which was supposed to
protect her". Looks like Mr Stones was also failed by Anne Seex. £1000,
what an insult! What kind of message does that send out to councils.
Anne Seex has been ditched by Trafford Council,
'from April 2007 any cases
involving Trafford Council will be dealt with by the ombudsman's office based at
Coventry rather than York.'
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