THE New Year will bring a new look and a new start for Rossendale Council when it begins a recruitment campaign for senior personnel.

The authority, which was named the worst in the country earlier this year, is to advertise for three senior employees.

They are new a chief executive, deputy chief executive and director of finance to bring the senior management team up to four.

The jobs are part of a restructuring exercise which will attempt to move the council away from its tendency to be too departmental.

The move has meant John Cowpe, director of development and environment, became redundant and left the authority last Thursday. He was invited to apply for a new senior job, but declined. He is the fourth senior officer to leave the council since the authority was criticised following a disastrous inspection by the Audit Commission.

The document criticised the management structure at the council and asked for changes.

Since then, chief executive Stephen Hartley has resigned, treasurer Richard Hargreaves has taken early retirement and David Taylor, responsible for housing, leisure and environmental health, also retired early.

Council leader Graham Pearson said: "John has done a tremendous job for Rossendale people over the years. The reality is that his job will become substantially different as senior people will have to work in a more themed way in the future.

"This new and more modern way of working will allow the council to operate as one unit, rather than as a number of separate departments, with senior officers driving policy and the section managers managing their departments. There were very hard decisions to take." The new posts carry larger salaries, but a smaller headcount at the top means total management costs will be lower. James Gravenor, the current Interim Chief Executive, was appointed in the summer on a temporary contract with a brief to put the council on the right track.

Councillors are also to consider joint working arrangements with neighbouring local authorities to cut costs and improve services.

One deal already reached will see Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale and possibly Hyndburn Councils working together to provide personnel services from April. Mr Cowpe's redundancy does not affect the position of other senior managers in the Development and Environmental Services Directorate.