From the District Council website today, some significant news:
The Chief Executive of Rochford District Council has announced he is to retire after 15 years in the job.
Paul Warren has been Chief Executive at the Council since 1998 and will step down in December. He is currently the longest serving Chief Executive in Essex.
Speaking about his reasons for leaving, Mr Warren said: ?This has been a hard decision to make, but I feel the time is right for both me and my family. I?ve always said that I would go once I reached 60. I still get a lot of enjoyment out of the job but it?s important I now hand over to someone new who can steer the Council through its next set of challenges….
…. An Extraordinary Meeting of the Council was held on 4th June to decide on the future management of the Council where Members decided to advertise externally for a replacement Chief Executive.
Paul has been a very capable Chief Executive ; definitely a ‘safe pair of hands’ but actually much more than that. It’s now an important task for the council to find a suitable replacement.
There is a subtext to all this. One possibility now would have been to try to share a chief executive with say Castle Point, or Southend Borough. However the council is NOT intending to go down that road – the intention is to stay a completely separate organisation.