Reform council leader dined at CEO’s hotel before he was given £215k job
Reform was accused of running recruitment for the position with "extreme haste"
David Bick, the Reform UK leader of Norwich County Council, was given dinner at a five-star luxury hotel just weeks before the council appointed the hotel’s owner, Dennis Bacon, as its new £215,000-a-year chief executive.
Bick previously said that he had not met Bacon before he appointed him following a one hour interview for the job.
However, as reported by The BBC, council records show that Bick and another senior Reform councillor Kabeer Kher, accepted hospitality at Bacon’s hotel just weeks before he landed the role.
According to the council’s hospitality register, Bick and Kher went to Bacon’s hotel on 1 July, with both receiving dinners valued at £50 each.
The next day, the role of council CEO was publicly advertised, and Bacon was appointed the following month.
Labour councillor Ben Weston – who found the details on the authority’s website – questioned why the Reform councillors went for a meal at the venue.
Weston told The BBC: “There may be an entirely innocent explanation, but there are obvious questions which now need answering: who arranged this dinner, who attended it, why was it provided and what was discussed?
“The public are entitled to complete transparency about the process,” he added.
Bick said he had been to the venue in Norwich for a dinner with local businesses and could not recall meeting Bacon there.
“I don’t recall if I’d met him before or if he was at the meeting,” Bick said.
However, Kher said he was “pretty sure” that Bacon was there.
According to a council report, 49 people applied for the role of chief executive. At the time of Bacon’s appointment, opposition councillors accused Reform of running the recruitment with “extreme haste”.
The role was advertised for just 24 days, which some argued was too short a window.
At a council meeting confirming the decision, Liberal Democrat Dan Roper argued that bin-collectors faced a more rigorous recruitment process.
Before becoming CEO of Norwich County Council on 7 September, Bacon was a director of a care firm, Apple Homecare, and also ran a hotel – which is described as “a luxury five-star hotel” on its website – and won on the Channel 4 reality show Four in a Bed last year.
He has since resigned as a director from both businesses.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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