Mark Williams, Chief Executive, East Devon District Council (EDDC) has announced his resignation, after 21 years, through the EDDC press office, see below.
Mark Williams was not only Chief Executive and Head of Paid Services, a combination of roles quite common in local government, but unusually he was also Head of Development Management (under the new guard labelled Planning).
Last night BBC Spotlight presented his resignation alongside unconfirmed reports that he was facing a formal complaint about his conduct.
BBC Spotlight reported that allegations had been made in a formal complaint that he had “intimidated and browbeaten” the conduct of an independent investigation into child sex abuse allegations. This refers to the Verita investigation into “who knew what and when” concerning the police investigation into John Humphreys, following his arrest, leading to safeguarding issues.
On Wednesday last week an Extraordinary Council Meeting was called to discuss “Confidential Staffing Issues”. Spotlight reported that it understood these included discussions of a severance package exceeding £100K.
EDDC has neither confirmed nor denied these reports and Mark Williams has declined to comment.
Last November EDDC agreed the formal procedures on how to conduct investigations into “Protected Officers” (CEO, Monitoring Officer and Chief Financial Officer).
According to the EDDC web site, until a new CEO is appointed, the vacancy will be covered by Simon Davey (Director Finance), Melanie Wellman (Director of Governance with electoral role responsibilities) and Tracy Hendren (Director of Housing),
This can be considered the final chapter in the “Changing of the Guard” in EDDC.
Mark Williams has announced his retirement as Chief Executive of East Devon District Council
eastdevon.gov.uk 11 October 2023
Mark joined the Council as Assistant Chief Executive in August 2000 and was promoted to the position of Chief Executive two years later.
During his 21-year career as Chief Executive, the Council has achieved national recognition as one delivering high quality and value for money services. During this period the Council has contributed to the growth of the local economy and the enhancement of the natural environment, whilst ensuring that the quality of life of local residents has been at the forefront in thinking and action within the Council. Mark is particularly proud of the Council’s strong financial position and the achievement of the highest level Investors in People accreditation.
Mark retires as the longest serving district Chief Executive in England and Wales. He also served for five years as the Chief Executive of the former South Somerset District Council.
In his own time Mark volunteered for ten years as a lifeboatman with the Sidmouth Lifeboat and for six years as a trustee of Devon Air Ambulance.
Mark said “I would like to thank all the wonderful people I have worked with over the years. A captain is only as good as their team, and I have been blessed to have great support from councillors and officers alike. The Council is facing significant future challenges and the time is now right to pass the baton.”
East Devon Watch 
Good riddance to a public servant who was widely regarded as being disrespectful to both democracy and voters,
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Good riddance indeed.
Unsurprisingly Williams doesn’t mention many of the things that did happen on his watch, some of which he would not account for. During his tenure, EDDC and some ‘partners’ activities gained the dubious distinction of being referred to as the ‘East Devon Mafia’, in a piece written by Anna Minton in 2013. The notorious East Devon Business Forum, was chaired by Tory Councillor Graham Brown at one time, he being the one caught out in a notorious Telegraph Sting as East Devon’s planning Mr Fixit.
The trip to give evidence before a parliamentary standards committee to give evidence about thousands of missing voters on East Devon Electoral Rolls also deserves a mention. Whilst checking Hansard for this hearing, I came across one record where EDDC was mentioned in very negative terms by another Select Committee which made the comment ““The Committee notes that despite evidence from the Electoral Commission that they would advise EROs to respond to FOI requests as though they were subject to the Act, East Devon District Council has been refusing to respond to requests for information under the FOI Act from members of the public in respect of electoral registration activity.”
And of course there is the matter of Tory Cllr John Humphreys. To my mind, and I have experience in these matters, the explanation of the law and practice that Williams gave to members concerning who could and who should be told about highly confidential information such as the suspicions about Humphreys, could be construed as ‘incomplete’. From what I recall of the Verita report on who knew what about Humphreys , one could be forgiven for thinking that the ship Williams captained was not one that was great on transparency.
I trust any new CEO will put maximum transparency as a primary objective.
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And of course there was the disclosure of a CONFIDENTIAL formal statement made to Devon & Cornwall Police by Claire Wright as a means of attempting to bully her – we don’t know how he got hold of this (dodgy handshakes?).
And the massively critical comments made by the court at the end of the First Tier Tribunal for the FoI request about the Knowle.
These are just the ones that I know about and which come immediately to mind some years later. I suspect that there may well be others that are public knowledge that I have forgotten or didn’t know about, and quite possibly others that have never been widely publicised.
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