Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the...
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See as the council consists of elected members, each of which are supposed to represent the wishes of the council tax payer in their respective wards, then why would you ever need an Executive?
Why not just ditch the plan and save the council tax payer some money?
It is rare, but not absolutely impossible to run a major council without a Chief Executive, the law only requires that you have a "Head of Paid Service."
As it happens, earlier in my career I can claim to be one of the very few councillors who have implemented exactly that policy - while I was a member of the cabinet of St Albans Council the CEO retired and we decided not to replace the post. Instead of the structure of a CEO and six directors, we adopted a structure of three strategic directors, one of whom would have the title of Head of Paid service.
So I'm not dismissing your point, Jim, because I actually did something not entirely dissimilar to what you are suggesting in the past.
However, I was commenting on the separate issue of whether the appointment process for the senior posts in a major public body should be subject to external competition. I am convinced that they should be.