A council chief has been fired for using furloughed staff to build glamping pods, lay turf and remove a dead pig from her private vineyard.
Clare Pestell runs Melbury Vale Winery near Shaftesbury, Dorset, which she bought with her brother Glynne in December 2003, according to its official website.
She joined South Somerset District Council in 2012, rising to become its director of commercial and income generation in 2017, and was last year in line to become interim chief executive, with the council confirming her appointment in May 2021.
But she dropped out the next month 'for personal reasons' before she had formally taken up the post, and was summarily dismissed in October following allegations of taxpayers' money and council resources being misused, Somerset Live reports.
A whistleblower made the claims in a letter to council leader Val Keitch in April 2021, and independent external investigator Richard Penn produced a report which found she had breached the council's code of conduct numerous times.
Ms Pestell denied the allegations and said the council staff were self-employed and working in their own time.
But Mr Penn's report found that she had failed to declare that council staff had been used - in council time - to build glamping pods, trim grass, lay turf outside her cottage and, in February 2020, remove a dead pig from her land.
Clare Pestell joined South Somerset District Council in 2012, rising to become its director of commercial and income generation - and was even in line to succeed Alex Parmley as interim chief executive, with the council confirming her appointment in May 2021
Ms Pestell runs Melbury Vale Winery near Shaftesbury, Dorset, which she bought with her brother Glynne in December 2003, according to its official website
She sent a message to an officer on February 24, 2020, asking them to take the pig to the Frome Vale livestock dealer near Maiden Newton, according to the report.
Mr Penn said Ms Pestell had 'risked bringing the council into serious disrepute' by paying council employees cash in hand or in kind for work done on her winery.
Some of the employees were shielding under the government's Covid restrictions, and were already in receipt of furlough payments through the coronavirus job retention scheme.
Mr Penn said Ms Pestell's actions were 'a serious misuse of council resources', including repairs to her own tractor and other vehicles at the council's Lufton depot in Yeovil during work hours.
The glamping pods were granted planning permission by North Dorset District Council in May 2018.
Mr Penn had spent ten years as chief executive of Bradford City Council and was commissioner for standards for the National Assembly for Wales between 2000 and 2010.
Ms Pestell had failed to declare that council staff had been used - in council time - to build glamping pods (pictured), trim grass, lay turf outside her cottage and, in February 2020, remove a dead pig from her land, a report found
Ms Pestell, who strongly denied the allegations, was summarily dismissed in October after the council's appointments committee reviewed a report from independent external investigator Richard Penn
Ms Pestell, who strongly denied the allegations, was summarily dismissed in October after the council's appointments committee reviewed a report from independent external investigator Richard Penn.
Mr Penn spent ten years as chief executive of Bradford City Council and was commissioner for standards for the National Assembly for Wales between 2000 and 2010.
He interviewed numerous members of staff, including Ms Pestell, and his report said she had breached the council's code of conduct numerous times, identifying several occasions where she used
