FRUSTRATED councillors are going back to the drawing board after failing to find a new chief executive for Bradford Council.

No-one interviewed for the post has been deemed good enough to take on the authority's top job.

Now questions are being asked about why the vacancy has failed to attract the right candidates.

Five candidates had been shortlisted - all understood to be external - but three senior councillors making up the interview panel decided against giving any of them the position.

Council leader Councillor David Green, who sat on the panel, said: "There were people there with strengths and weaknesses but the interview panel unanimously didn't feel that there was anybody there who met the criteria that we had identified for being chief executive in Bradford."

Joining Cllr Green on the panel had been deputy leader Councillor Imran Hussain (Lab) and Conservative representative Councillor Mike Ellis.

Cllr Ellis said: "It is frustrating but at the end of the day, we are a very large authority with a large spend and with hopes and ideas for the future.

"What we are looking for is someone not just as a head of paid service but someone who can fulfil our hopes and ambitions."

The panel had very specific requirements, he said, including the ability to attract more investment to the district to create jobs, and making sure the district punches its weight in the corridors of power - especially with more powers set to be devolved from Government to the regions.

He said: "There are not going to be a lot of people out there, but the authority desperately needs someone with these sorts of experiences and qualifications."

Cllr Green said they would reconvene in the New Year to decide what to do next.

But he suggested one of the reasons they could be having recruitment problems was because of next year's General Election.

He said people in senior positions at other local authorities were likely to also be returning officers, and could be so busy preparing for the elections that they might not be looking to change jobs.

He said: "That might be a problem and that is one thing we have got to consider."

But Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said this suggestion was "garbage".

She said instead, the situation hinted at a wider recruitment and retention problem in the Council's highest echelons.

She said: "It's flagging up major concerns, isn't it? If you look at the large number of senior, top people who have left, you worry about whether or not this is an attractive proposition for somebody."

City solicitor Suzan Hemingway is standing in as the authority’s interim chief executive after the departure of Tony Reeves from the £178,000-a-year role in October.

In his last interview with the T&A before stepping down, Mr Reeves said he saw the chief executive role in Bradford as "the top job in local government".