A Tory fire commissioner was facing resignation calls last night amid claims that he was in a long-term romantic relationship with a woman who he hired to lead the fire brigade despite her having zero experience.
Five different sources told The Mail on Sunday that commissioner Stephen Mold, 55, and Nicci Marzec, 50, had been together for several years. Last night, he denied that they were in a relationship.
Ms Marzec resigned as boss of Northamptonshire Fire And Rescue Service on Monday after criticism from the Fire Brigades Union that her recruitment was ‘highly unusual’ because she had ‘no operational understanding of the role’.
Mr Mold, the elected Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime commissioner said she was just a ‘really good friend’.
He has admitted that he had stayed overnight at Ms Marzec’s house but denied being in a relationship with her.
Five different sources told The Mail on Sunday that commissioner Stephen Mold (pictured left), 55, and Nicci Marzec (right), 50, had been together for several years
Fellow members of the local Conservative association said it was widely believed that they were a couple. Mr Mold was said to spend the night regularly at her home and they had split from their former partners. They had even taken their respective children from previous relationships on holiday to Center Parcs together.
‘It is the worst kept secret in the party,’ one local Tory source said last night, adding: ‘Almost everyone knows about them as they are always together and I’m surprised it’s not come out yet.’
Another said: ‘Before this recent Press attention they didn’t keep it quiet that they were together. He stays at her house several nights a week and last year they took their kids to Center Parcs together.’
In recent years they have been on several cycling trips together to fundraise for a local charity.
One source said they slept in the same hotel room during a four-day tour from Belgium to Cambridge, via the Netherlands, in September 2018.
One person on the trip said: ‘They shared a hotel bedroom every night and also on the ferry back, it was no secret. It’s not as if there were not enough bedrooms to go around.’ Sources also stated that it was widely known that Ms Marzec did paid work for Mr Mold’s baby care business, Earthlets, which he and his estranged wife Nicola own.
When the MoS put the findings of our inquiries to him on Friday, he said: ‘I’m in shock, I don’t know what to say.’
Last night, he issued a denial, saying: ‘My friendship with Ms Marzec is well known and openly declared. I am not now, nor have ever been, in a romantic relationship with her.’
Ms Marzec resigned as boss of Northamptonshire Fire And Rescue Service on Monday
It was announced on July 7 that Ms Marzec, who had previously worked as Mr Mold’s head of paid staff and monitoring officer, would be taking over as interim fire chief following the sudden departure of predecessor Mark Jones.
Mr Mold claimed that he had acted with ‘urgency’ to fill the role ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 9 – one of Northamptonshire’s biggest events of the year. However, it emerged yesterday that Ms Marzec did not work that weekend.
Adam Taylor, Fire Brigades Union representative for the East Midlands, said: ‘An assistant chief officer oversaw the fire and rescue service all that weekend and Ms Marzec was not even on the rota. It is clear that Stephen Mold is trying but failing to cover his tracks. He must now resign.’
Mr Mold, who was first elected as commissioner in 2016, was expected to stand for re-election next May.
He is due to be grilled on Thursday by councillors on the police, fire and crime panel at West Northamptonshire Council about Ms Marzec’s appointment.
There is anger locally that the meeting will exclude access to the public and Press.
Labour councillor Zoe McGhee, who sits on the panel, said: ‘Once again a woman has taken the consequences of a man’s rash decision. We are all urging the commissioner to take proper accountability and I hope the panel can publicly scrutinise the events with an open and honest conversation.’
DailyMail
