Council boss gets £90k payoff despite drink-driving arrest
Bayo Dosunmu 'stepped down' from his £190,000-a-year role as chief executive at Lambeth council in London after he was arrested more than three times over the drink-drive limit in June last year.
Dosunmu, 46, failed to stop after crashing his Jeep into another car in central London following a night out but he was followed by the vehicle and forced to stop.
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Police said Dosunmu was slurring his words and 'struggling to follow directions'.
The executive, who oversaw several anti-car policies while head of the council, later admitted to being uninsured, drink-driving and failing to stop after the crash.
He was given a 12-month community order, with 15 days of rehab sessions and 150 hours of community service. He was also banned from driving for two years.
A freedom of information request by a Lambeth resident has revealed that the authority paid Dosunmu £87,879 after the council 'agreed to jointly enter into a settlement agreement' after the 'unexpected and unprecedented emergency situation'.
In a statement, Lambeth council said: 'Bayo Dosunmu stepped down as chief executive of Lambeth council in July 2024. He received payment in respect of his notice period, untaken annual leave and for his work as acting returning officer for the general election and a by-election. These were paid in line with his contract and for work already completed.'
Earlier this year, Lambeth, which is nearly £1 billion in debt and has been accused of 'severe maladministration', applied to central government for a £40 million bailout because of a huge budget shortfall in its housing division.
The authority said the 'emergency' cash was necessary because of the rent caps and rising maintenance costs after the Grenfell fire. However, critics pointed out that the authority had been forced to pay council house tenants more than £16 million in compensation for substandard homes and poor service since 2017.
A month earlier, the council, which has spent £25 million on climate initiatives and is paying 53 staff more than £100,000 a year, announced plans to dim its street lights to help deal with its financial problems.
It also announced that it would increase parking charges and consult on changes to council tax support and children's centre provision among a package of measures to lower costs and raise income.
The freedom of information request, by Sheila O'Reilly, a Lambeth resident, asked whether the council had considered Dosunmu's behaviour to be gross misconduct. The authority replied: 'The council considered the issues as ones which gave rise to the question of whether trust and confidence in Dosunmu as chief executive had broken down.'
The response explained that he was suspended the day of his arrest and then 'stepped down' the following month but that 'no reason was given'.
It added that under a 'contractual entitlement', Dosunmu was paid £46,943 'in respect of his notice period'; another £6,687 for 'untaken annual leave'; and two 'pro rata payments — up to the date of suspension — for his acting returning officer duties' during recent elections, which amounted to £34,250.
The document also revealed Dosunmu was allowed to keep his local government pension.
The TaxPayers' Alliance described the payment as 'an absolute disgrace', stating that residents expected their council tax to be spent on frontline services.
O'Reilly is so disillusioned with the council that she has set up a petition calling on the government to intervene. The petition describes the Labour-dominated authority as'increasingly authoritarian' and operating as a 'virtual one-party state' with no effective opposition.
After the last local election, 58 of the area's 63 councillors were Labour, although four were later suspended from the party in a row over the authority's reaction to the war in Gaza.
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