Council’s chief sad to be leaving

Mr Hodgson, 60, of Matlock, is to leave the council in June after the newly-elected Labour authority announced his departure but the council or Mr Hodgson have so far declined to give any explanation.

The father-of-four said: “We’ve had hard times but we’ve managed and implemented budget reductions carefully and achieved minimal effects on services and employees.”

Mr Hodgson went to school in Derbyshire, went to Manchester University and became the county council’s town planning assistant in 1975, corporate planning assistant in 1989 and was the council’s chief for 16 years. His happiest memories include the opening of a Toyota plant, near Derby. Other highlights include a high court battle to maintain the authority as a county council and the council’s consistently high Comprehensive Performance Assessment ratings. Mr Hodgson described the Derbyshire way as building an organisation on honesty and trust with an ethos of treating people as you would want to be treated yourself. He added: “I’m saddened to leave. The council is a credit to its employees.”