Editor: Time for action - because city cannot remain on hold

Chief executive Kate Josephs is in her third week on full paid leave, which many might argue leaves the local authority of the fourth biggest city rudderless.

Certainly, when Star reporters have asked the question, we are not being given the names of any officials who are filling the breach.

Surely, it is therefore a fair conclusion that nobody has been asked to step up? After all, who would willingly put their hand up for that and, since the boss admitted to the leaving do late on a Friday afternoon and has been off ever since, which officer should even make that call?

This is not an easy situation for anybody inside the Town Hall. To be blunt, their boss has really dumped them in it and time isn’t making it better.

If Kate Josephs is to keep her job, that decision should be made this week and the group who are charged with making that call must start rallying calls to get the city to reinvest their trust in her.

Right now, all eyes should be focused on nailing a budget that gives the council a fighting chance.

Believe me, this was already going to be an enormously tough challenge within a new council committee system.

Doing it when everything has been thrown into disarray fills me with real concern for our city.

We all know that anger eases, that people were calling for the Prime Minister and our CEO to resign with much more fury when Downing Street parties were first revealed. But regardless of what ultimately happens to Boris Johnson, Sheffield is suffering every day this is allowed to rumble on.

It can take up to a year to replace a chief executive and nobody in the Town Hall is showing any inclination to fork out for an interim, as happened before Kate was appointed. This state of not knowing is causing enormous damage.

We’ve waited for the (hugely redacted) Sue Gray report. Must we now wait for the Met police to conclude their inquiries and then for our own Sheffield council investigation? In terms of the law, no we don’t. In terms of reputation, we simply can’t. If Kate isn’t going to resign, we need an urgent judgement on her judgement so our city can start to recover.