Council merger plan ditched

A plan for Stafford and Cannock Chase councils to share a chief executive and other administration has been shelved.

Cannock council's chief executive Stephen Brown was ordered to ditch talks on the "back-office" merger at a meeting last night.

The authorities were not in line for a full merger but had been exploring the possibility of having a joint chief executive.

It is understood councillors on both sides of the Cannock authority are angry over how the talks have been handled.

Many were only made aware of the plan after an announcement by Stafford Borough Council on January 8.

Both authorities claimed they could have save £1 million by a merger of their back-office functions but today Cannock council leader Neil Stanley said the discussions had been shelved.

He said: "The discussions have been stopped because subjects were being raised which we were not remotely interested in such as a joint chief executive and moves towards a possible merger.We would be absolutely and totally opposed to that.."

He added: "The remit that we gave was to look at and prepare a report on the business benefits to the council of merging backroom functions.

"Unfortunately that agenda was then extended or there was a potential for it to extend to issues we were not prepared to consider."

Mr Brown was not available for comment today.