Chaos at West Midlands Fire Service: Chief exec resigns, then 'sacked'

West Midlands Fire Service was plunged further into chaos after its chief fire officer withdrew his resignation only for councillors to "sack him" anyway hours later.

The agenda of today's West Midlands Fire Authority included the resignations of interim chief fire officer Oliver Lee and chairman of the authority Councillor Greg Brackenridge, who stood down with immediate effect over the weekend.

Councillor Brackenridge resigned after online allegations about his military record were reported in national media.

Almost immediately the meeting was adjourned as "new information" had come to light which the members needed to discuss in private. It subsequently emerged Lee had withdrawn his resignation.

Lee announced his resignation last week but the meeting was told he had withdrawn his resignation. On the agenda was "Section 5 Legal advice and Interim CEO and Section 151/Treasurer written consultation response" which was discussed behind closed doors. This was concerning Mr Lee's conduct and whether he had overstepped the mark by suspending the organisation's finance director Sofia Mahmood.

After the secret discussion, monitoring officer Satinder Sahota confirmed the Authority agreed with his complaint Lee did act outside his powers on at least two occasions, including suspending Miss Mahmood in May this year.

Which had obvious ramifications for Mr Lee, who hours later posted on Linkedin: ""Well, that’s been a few hard months of trying so hard to do the right thing in the face of the contrary. I felt over the weekend that the situation might have changed in the face of the Chair’s resignation. So, for 1900 people, I made my first ever u turn, and withdrew my resignation. To help.

"Sadly, I have just received this from the army of lawyers employed by West Midlands Fire Service:‘Your employment with WMFRA has terminated.’

Mr Lee was appointed after the death of former CEO Mark Brown, who was being investigated for getting the job on the back of a CV riddled with false information and inflated qualifications.

After the meeting, at West Midlands Fire Service headquarters, vice chairman of the authority Councillor Catherine Miks released a statement confirming she would be Councillor Brackenbridge's temporary replacement and Mr Lee's number two Simon Barry will get the top job until a new appointment.