Borough chief executive to retire (From Redhill And Reigate Life)

Borough chief executive to retire

3:56pm Monday 14th December 2009

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Reigate and Banstead Borough Council's chief executive has announced he is to retire next year.

Nigel Clifford announced he will be leaving his post next May after 35 years working for the council at a meeting last week.

He told members he believed it was the best time for him to stand aside because changes facing local government meant the council would soon become “a very different organisation,” and the council needed a new “guiding hand.”

Mr Clifford said: “I have worked for Reigate and Banstead Borough Council for 35 years, almost from its foundation, and by April will have led the organisation for nine years.”

He said: “Quite apart from the fact that I will be 60 in April, I believe that the degree of change facing local government in the next few years will lead to the council becoming a very different organisation.

"I have absolutely no problem with that. Indeed we recognised the need to change some time ago, because in many service areas, district councils are not sufficiently big enough to be economic - shared or outsourced services are the way forward.”

He said: “For this reason, I believe that now is the best time for me to stand aside and allow the council to appoint a new chief executive who can have a guiding hand in the design and development of this new style of service delivery.

"All but three years of my working life have been here at Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.

“I’m proud of the borough and proud to have served."

Joan Spiers, council leader, said Mr Clifford had “given his all” to the council.

She said: “Nigel has worked with me to take this council from a performance that was just weak to fair, to joint top performing Surrey district. “He will be greatly missed and a hard act to follow.”

Mr Clifford joined the borough council as a town planner in 1975 and since then has been a major influence on the way the borough looks and lives.

He was involved, amongst other things, in the Reigate Conservation Study, which led to a major extension of the conservation area.

Continuing in planning roles, he worked variously on the Redhill Town Centre Local Plan and the first Borough Local Plan, which extended the Green Belt from Reigate and Redhill down to the outskirts of Horley.

He also worked on developing planning frameworks, including for the Belfry Centre, Redhill, and Safeways (now Morrisons) in Reigate.

Between 1991 and 1995, as assistant director (development control), his team performed as best in Surrey, and oversaw the arrival in the borough of the new headquarters for Canon and Toyota.

Since his appointment as chief executive in 2002, the £6.5 million restoration and modernisation of Priory Park has been completed, with the aid of a £4.5 million Heritage Lottery grant.

Fifteen village and shopping parade enhancement schemes have also been implemented across the borough, a site has been acquired for a new leisure centre in Horley, and major new developments have evolved at Watercolour and Park 25.

Other initiatives have included the council’s housing stock, valued at £65 million, being successfully transferred to Raven Housing Trust.

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