Bucks Councils Appoint Joint Chief Executive 

Alan Goodrum has been appointed the shared Chief Executive for Chiltern and South Bucks District councils.

Alan, who has been chief executive of Chiltern District Council for the last 16 years, takes up his new role from 22 February.

The two joint director positions have also both been filled, with Bob Smith being appointed as Joint Director of Services and Jim Burness as Joint Director of Resources. Both Bob and Jim have been working for South Bucks District Council for the last 12 and 9 years respectively.

These three senior appointments will save the two councils over £200,000 per year. Previously the two chief executives were paid around £105,000 each; the new joint chief executive role will be paid at £125,000. The three director posts (previously one at Chiltern, two at South Bucks) were each paid £88,000 each; the two new joint director posts will now receive £91,000 each.

The appointment process for all three positions followed advice from an independent human resources advisor and the Local Government Employers’ Association. The salaries for each post have been independently, externally assessed and benchmarked against current salaries for similar sized local authorities.

As well as creating a joint chief executive and joint directors, the two councils are to share other senior management posts in the near future. It is anticipated that by sharing services and roles when the full programme is implemented it will reduce the cost of running the two councils by at least £500,000 per year from 2015.

Alan Goodrum will manage the services of both councils, serving a combined population of over 157,000 people. However, each authority will remain independent and keep their separate identities, retain their own councillors and budgets - council taxpayers' money from one council will not be spent by the other.

Leader of Chiltern District Council, Councillor Nick Rose said: "I am delighted that Alan has been appointed as the councils' shared chief executive. He has vast experience in local government and his considerable talent, drive and ability have been obvious to all who have worked with him so far.

There are some very challenging times ahead and I am confident that Alan, Bob and Jim are the right people to lead the partnership forward."

Leader of South Bucks District Council, Councillor Adrian Busby, said: "We believe Alan has all the attributes to take both authorities forward. He is particularly strong in his approach to partnership working; an area which we believe will help us greatly in involving our communities more in delivering future services.

And at the same time Bob and Jim will be preparing both authorities for the financial challenges and the initiatives we need to share more services between us."

The next stage of the shared services partnership will be for the two councils to rationalise their senior teams to bring about more cost effective service delivery.