Full time call for council chief executive

FORMER professional footballer Ian Stewart is to step down as chief executive of Cambridge-shire County Council in the summer. A successor is likely to take charge of one of the country s fastest-growing authorities in September. Mr Stewart s decision to

FORMER professional footballer Ian Stewart is to step down as chief executive of Cambridge-shire County Council in the summer. A successor is likely to take charge of one of the country's fastest-growing authorities in September.

Mr Stewart's decision to go follows Cllr Keith Walters's announcement a week previously that he would not seek re-election after 10 years as leader of the council's Conservative group.

Mr Stewart, 60, was born in Perth and played Scottish league football for a succession of clubs before turning to management, successively with Brechin, Arbroath and Montrose.

A career in central government beckoned, and he was a director of the Benefits Agency and on the board of the Department for Education and Skills before leaving a post as a benefit fraud regulator to manage Bradford City Council. He joined Cambridgeshire County Council four years ago.

He will retire at the end of June, giving time for the council's new leader to settle in after he or she is elected on May 15.

"I'm sorry to be going, but I thought it was probably the right time to go." he told the Ely Standard.