The Lincolnshire Echo’s call for the county council executive to resign has been answered following a damning report that criticised the council’s leadership as “weak” and “inadequate”.

Lincolnshire County Council leader Ian Croft and the nine other members of the council’s ruling Tory executive quit after the report by government-appointed inspectors.

Following the report, the Echo said the leadership was “mistrusted by long-suffering taxpayers”, “hated by frightened council staff”, “snubbed by local business and community leaders” and “rejected by Lincolnshire’s exasperated Tory MPs”.

It printed 50 reasons why the council leaders should quit and gave telephone numbers for readers to call to demand the resignations of the executive’s members.

Echo editor Mike Sassi said: “It’s been going on for almost five years. The former leader Jim Speechley was guilty of criminal behaviour and Croft and the rest of the executive have been profoundly inept, wasting huge sums of taxpayers’ cash.

“Now they’ve had the error of their ways pointed out and paid the price.”

The report said that the council’s leadership ignored advice on how to avoid its previous failures, including illegal payments of taxpayers’ money and abuse of councillors’ power.

It also criticised the atmosphere of “fear and mistrust” in which council staff have been working and said that the executive had failed to “clearly and unequivocally disassociate the current political leadership from that of the former leader”.

Speechley was jailed in April 2004 for 18 months after being found guilty of misconduct while in public office.

Mike said: “We have remained independent but have highlighted the political ineptitude of this leadership and how it has impacted upon 15,000 council workers – from teachers to firefighters – people going about their daily lives being pushed, pulled, bullied and frightened.”

Mike said a meeting to elect a new leadership has been arranged for later this week, but said he was sceptical about progress being made.

He said: “The people doing the electing have refused to go for reforming candidates before.

“In the end something has to be sorted out. Call me an old cynic, but I have my doubts.

“There are alternatives – there are two really good Tory councillors who’ve said ‘This isn’t the way forward, follow us instead’ and they have been backed by local MPs. But the backwoodsmen of the council have consistently rejected them.”