County Coucil votes to scrap chief exec role

In a bid to save more than £300,000 a year on management costs Derbyshire County Council has approved a proposal to do without the role of chief executive and to reduce its top management team.

The current chief executive is Ian Stephenson.

Detailed plans were presented to a special meeting of Full Council on 26 July and a debate was held by councillors before the proposals were approved by a vote.

The plans will result in two existing top-tier posts being abolished, the assistant chief executive and the strategic director of corporate resources, in addition to that of chief executive.

A single new post, a strategic director of commissioning, communities and policy, will be created to focus on making sure the council provides quality services which are good value for money.

Councillor Barry Lewis, leader of Derbyshire County Council, said: “It’s our public duty to constantly look for savings to balance the council’s books.

“That sometimes means being bold and doing things differently − it’s the right thing to do because every saving we make helps us to carry on providing quality frontline services for the people of Derbyshire.

“We have been as open and transparent as we can possibly be, given that individual employees are affected. But I want to be absolutely clear that, whilst the legal rights of the employees will of course be respected, there is no intention of making any ‘golden handshake’ payments.”

He added: “As well as cutting costs on senior managers, we’ve also reduced the allowances paid to our councillors holding positions on Cabinet by around 12%, saving the council just under £29,000 a year.”

The Council is currently consulting with affected employees and it is expected that the new management structure will be implemented towards the end of the year.