ARROGANT and unrepentant as ever, David Corker fails to take the opportunity to apologise as he departs on early retirement from the Council.

Instead he tells us that Lancaster Council is a laughing stock and implies that his departure is a factor? Well, Lancaster was a laughing stock, as a direct result of the appalling regime of the former so-called Labour administration and the "highly experienced and respected" officers, now thankfully departed, praise be, of whom Corker presumably counts himself as one.

Back in 1997 and 1998 knowledgeable people were telling me that Lancaster City Council was disgracefully officer dominated and the worst they had ever known.

Over the last couple of years, the MBIs and the new senior officers have made progress, but no-one should underestimate the extent of the damage done by the previous regime which will take years to repair.

Tony Blair talks about wreckers - we could tell him a thing or two.

Four highly experienced, etc., officers given the red card, he says.

What he means is: allowed to take civilised, comfortable and lucrative early retirement at our expense.

Not the unceremonious booting out with a gagging order visited on John Burrows, the man whose job Corker took; not the sacking on trumped-up charges that was suffered by David Christley.

He persists in referring to himself as Chief Executive.

He never was.

He was acting chief executive (after the so-called Labour Group and some of the highly etc., etc., officers had managed to see off Burrows) and failed to get the permanent post when it was advertised in an open competition run by independent management consultants.

David Corker has gone.

There are those who will view his departure without sorrow.

But we may not have heard the last of him.

Who knows, there may still be one or two chickens waiting to come home to roost.

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