MID Devon District Council’s dismissal rate for misconduct has neared the total of all the county’s other districts combined.

A total of 19 people have been dismissed for misconduct from the local authority over four years, according to responses to public questions.

No context was given as to the reasons for the dismissals or the level of seniority of the individuals, but the figure surprised resident Paul Elstone – who asked the council about the topic – to such a degree he sought the same figures from Devon’s other districts.

A separate Freedom of Information request by another person shows Mid Devon dismissed five of those 19 people in the 2024/25 financial year.

The council specified those five dismissals were for misconduct as “poor performance would be covered under capability and not disciplinary (apart from acts of negligence in the performance of duties)”.

Devon’s seven other district councils have dismissed a combined 24 people, according to the data secured by Mr Elstone.

Exeter has dismissed seven individuals for misconduct in that time, followed by Torridge District Council (four), East Devon District Council (three), and Teignbridge District Council (one). North Devon District Council has also only dismissed one person, but only provided two years’ worth of figures.

West Devon and South Hams, which share some services and so provided one combined figure, had dismissed eight people.

At a Mid Devon full council meeting, Mr Elstone said the figures suggest “either this council has an extremely poor recruitment process or it has a draconian employee management culture”.

“Will the council leader implement a comprehensive external review into the extremely high number of employee dismissals at this council?” he asked.

Councillor Gordon Czapiewski (Liberal Democrat, Tiverton Lowman), the chair of the council, told Mr Elstone he would receive a written reply to this question.