It is interesting to note that Richard Penn, the recently retired chief executive of Bradford Council, has taken on a new role as a consultant representing chief executives in trouble.

Mr Penn retired from his £110,00-a-year post on stress-related grounds last month after protracted negotiations which reportedly secured him a healthy package paid for out of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund. So he is obviously well placed to advise other people in his new honorary role with the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives.

He will at first be acting as back-up to the present consultant but has been reported as saying that within a year he will be taking on the bulk of the consultancy work himself. He will not only be able to draw on his own experience of negotiating on his own behalf, but also on the occasions when, as Bradford Council's chief executive, he helped to negotiate arrangements for departing senior officers like theatres supremo Anamaria Wills and director of education Sari Conway.

Local authorities up and down the country (including, of course, Bradford) now need to be aware that they could have a man of considerable experience on the case if they find themselves parting company with their most senior officer.

Given the pressures involved in negotiating the expenditure of public money, let us hope, as Mr Penn's reputation as a consultant grows and the demands on his time and talents increase, that his specialist role does not prove too stressful for him.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.