THE MAN set to become Slough Borough Council's new chief executive has been accused of swearing, inappropriate behaviour and being 'physically aggressive' in relation to colleagues.

Deputy leader, Cllr Sabia Hussain, unleashed a string of allegations about interim chief Roger Parkin at an appointments sub-committee meeting on Monday night. The meeting, which was heard in public, was called after Cllr Hussain formally objected to Mr Parkin's selection as the permanent chief.

But her allegations were rejected by council leader, Cllr Sohail Munawar, with the committee deciding Mr Parkin should still go forward as the preferred choice.

Cllr Hussain said: "He called the Labour Party Whip (Cllr Haqeeq Dar) a 'f**kwit' and referred to the then-deputy leader of the council (Cllr James Swindlehurst) as a 'fat f**k'.

"The chief executive is supposed to be held to high standards of ethical behaviour."

Furthermore, Cllr Hussain also alleged that that he had referred to a senior member of council staff as a 'little sh*t' and then put the insult in writing to junior members of staff. She also claimed that at a meeting of the Wellbeing board, Mr Parkin had referred to overweight people as "lazy couch potatoes who need to get off their backsides."

As part of her submission, Cllr Hussain also claimed: "It is documented that he was abusive and physically aggressive to the former chief executive (Ruth Bagley), and was subsequently referred for Anger Management.

"Since becoming interim chief executive in the past 18 months he has conducted himself in a manner that falls short of expectations, watching football on his phone during cabinet and other meetings as recently as a few weeks ago."

Cllr Munawar said that the allegations about poor professional conduct could not be substantiated, and denied that Mr Parkin had ever been referred to anger management, saying that "there was no record of this on his personal file." Cllr Munawar mentioned, however, that a condition of his appointment would relate to improved behaviour.

As this story went live, The Observer was still awaiting a response from Mr Parkin.

See this Friday's Slough Observer for a full report.