The head of Kent County Council’s communications team has been forced to abandon a plan to set up his own public relations firm after an internal inquiry.

Marcus Chrysostomou, who is based at County Hall in Maidstone and is head of external communications, recently launched Honesty Communications, offering services including crisis management, media relations and campaign planning.

He planned to run the agency with two other county council colleagues while continuing with his public sector job.

But it emerged that the move had led to concerns that the two roles would represent a conflict of interests.

Kent County Council said on Tuesday it had launched an investigation into whether there had been a breach of its own rules, which require staff to get formal approval for any outside work.

It said it was examining whether permission had been sought to set up the company in line with its requirements.

Barely 24-hours later, the authority said that after considering the issue, it was clear that specific permission had not been given to Mr Chrysostomou.

In a statement by Amanda Beer, the authority’s corporate director of human resources, the council said: "After having had time to take a further look at this case, it is clear that specific permission for all these outside commitments had not been given by KCC. Following further discussion with this employee, all these outside activities have ceased."

On the agency’s website Mr Chrysostomou described himself as an ‘energetic, demonstrative wild wolf.’

The website also identified KCC account manager Helen Bell and Julian Scott as partners in the agency.

A county council whistleblower who contacted the KM Group said the move represented a huge conflict of interests.

"How would other private PR and marketing companies in Kent react to news they have a new competitor run by people who work full time in senior positions for KCC?" the whistleblower said.

Mr Chrysostomou told the KM Group at the start of the week that he had sought and received clearance before setting up the agency. He had also given assurances that he would not be bidding for KCC contracts.