South Somerset and East Devon District Councils To Share Chief Executives From March 2010

Source: South Somerset District Council
Published Friday, February 26, 2010 - 10:40

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South Somerset and East Devon DCs, the biggest district councils in the South West, have approved plans to share a chief executive as from March 2010 as part of a phased approach to driving out millions of pounds in efficiency savings.

The councils began exploring options in the summer of 2009 and have moved remarkably fast to secure what officers and councillors call “the biggest district partnership in England.”

The councils are in separate counties but do share a common border. The population of South Somerset is 162,000 while East Devon serves 137,000 residents. The combined population of nearly 300,000 makes this the biggest district partnership to date and only the third nationally to see councils in different counties come together.

The chief executive of South Somerset, Phil Dolan, has decided to move on and seek new opportunities leaving Mark Williams, currently chief executive at East Devon, as the new joint chief executive.

Mr Dolan said, “Mark and I have worked well together on thi partnering agreement. He is a fantastic chief executive and I know he will do a brilliant job in this exciting new role. As for me, I think leaving South Somerset at this point is no bad thing. I have loved every minute of my time here and am delighted to leave knowing the staff and councillors have, in the recent CAA organisational assessment got the highest score of any district council in the region. To be the best performing district council in the South West is a fantastic achievement which I have been delighted to have played a small part in securing.”

The formal agreement will see the councils working together for an initial period of four years. Whilst a shared chief executive is the first move the councils will, via a Joint Integration Committee of members, look to share a management team, procurement arrangements and specialist posts.

Cllr Tim Carroll, Leader of Liberal Democrat controlled South Somerset District Council said, “Savings from a shared chief executive will be in the region of £630,000 over the life of the agreement while projection on the shared management team could top £8.5 million in the same period.

“Our council taxpayers quite naturally expect us as a local authority to explore all avenues for savings that avoid radical cuts to services.”

Cllr Sara Randall Johnson, Leader of Conservative controlled East Devon District Council agreed, adding: “Our residents expect us to look at all ways of preserving those valued front line services during tough economic times. Merged management structures make perfect sense.”

Both councils will remain as independent sovereign bodies and will remain as key players within their respective county partnerships but believe more and more councils are seeing the sense in moving to more formalised partnerships with clear financial savings targets.

Mark Williams said, “We believe that local district councils, closely focused on the needs of their communities, have both the capacity and more importantly, the flexibility to deliver the necessary savings in the foreseeable economic climate.”

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