Mary Weastell, who is currently the Chief Executive at Selby District Council and an Assistant Chief Executive at North Yorkshire County Council, has been appointed as the City of York Council’s new Chief Executive

We hope that she will have more success than some other recent appointees. Being relatively local should help.

Rather worryingly she has tred a familiar career path, with the Bradford Council figuring high on her CV,

Her “linked in” profile reveals that she did work in the York Council for 4 months under the Alexander regime and claims some “credit” for organisational change (which saw a virtual collapse in electronic customer service interfaces not to mention performance measures which simply disappeared from view for 4 years!). Putting that right would be a good start.

Her most urgent task though will be to re-establish the authorities reputation as a transparent organisation committed to delivering good quality street level services

• Strategic Director (secondment from Bradford) City of York Council July 2013 – October 2013 (4 months)  Leading a Business Review and Change Programme and building the design and delivery models for customer services, commissioning and procurement, business support and policy and performance

We wish her well in tackling what will be a major step up from the activities of the much smaller Selby Council.