A pounds 175,000-a-year one-horse race; Acting chief is the only name in the frame.

Byline: Amy Hunt

APOLITICAL row has blown up over a decision to interview only one candidate for a pounds 175,000-a-year council job.

Newcastle City Council's constitutional committee agreed to ring-fence the appointment of a new chief executive to include just one person.

Barry Rowland has been the acting chief executive since the departure of former boss Ian Stratford in November.

And he is set to be the only person interviewed for the permanent post after a decision by members of the city council's cross party constitutional committee, which met in private on Tuesday.

Opposition Labour councillors say they will not support any appointment which could be seen as a one-horse race, regardless of the individual involved, and withdrew from the process at the meeting.

Labour leader Nick Forbes said: "As a point of principle, the Labour group believes that the chief executive's post should be open to external candidates and to have a chief executive appointed by councillors from only one party would be very damaging and would undermine his or her authority.

"I'm urging the Liberal Democrats to think again and make it clear that there will be a full and proper recruitment process for our new chief executive. That's the only way we can demonstrate that the process is fair and transparent." Liberal Democrat deputy leader David

Faulkner said: "It's not a whipped committee where parties come to the meeting with a view. Different points of view are expressed through a debate and rightly so.

"I voted in favour of the ring-fenced interview because I didn't want to give any impression of lack of confidence in the acting chief executive, who has been doing the job for six months.

"The interview will be done very rigorously.

If he fails to achieve the standard we are looking for we will go to the fallback position of advertising." It is believed councillors at the meeting were given the choice of whether to open the post to external candidates or not..

They were told advertising the post, which carries maximum earnings of around pounds 175,000, would cost pounds 30,000 more than ring-fencing it.

Members of the constitutional committee would form the interview panel which would make the appointment, which would then have to be approved by the full council.

Since taking up the nine-month temporary post last year Mr Rowland, who was previously deputy chief executive, has overseen a process of shedding 510 posts at the city council.

The "transformation" programme aims to save pounds 20m by reorganising the management structure. As part of the process the post of deputy chief executive looks set to be scrapped, which would leave Mr Rowland without a job were he not permanently given the top job.

Last month Mr Rowland announced a deal for the council to buy the empty Northern Rock tower in Gosforth for a sum thought to be around pounds 22m.

The building will be leased to support services firm eaga, with which the city council is setting up a firm to tender for services such as payroll and customer service. The partners say this will create up to 500 jobs and secure 2,000.

Former chief executive Ian Stratford quit his pounds 170,000 post in November, having taken up the post in 2002, to take early retirement. The council came under fire for refusing to reveal details of Mr Stratford's severance package, said to be worth around pounds 400,000.

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CAPTION(S):

NO OPPOSITION Barry Rowland will not have any rivals for the post of Newcastle City Council chief executive - but he still faces a tough interview. AT STAKE Newcastle Civic Centre, home of the city council.