Council boss Nicola Yates to leave

The council’s chief executive Nicola Yates is to step down from her post at the end of this month.

Yates, who earns a £160,000 basic salary, was brought in as city director in 2013 six months after George Ferguson became Bristol’s first elected mayor.

She was previously the chief executive of North Shropshire Council and then Hull City Council until she left her post suddenly in 2012 amid speculation of a breakdown in relations with the council’s Labour leadership. Bristol elected a Labour mayor and Labour majority council in May.

At Bristol, she came under fire for presiding over the slowest election counts in the UK for the local elections this year where she was the chief returning officer for the council, earning an extra salary for this role.

She also faced pressure over levels of transparency of the city’s European Green Capital project, which she oversaw as chief executive of Bristol 2015. She was paid £18,000 for this third post, but faced demands from the Lib Dems to pay back the money she earned.

She is also a director of Bristol Is Open, chair of the board of Bristol Energy and Bristol Waste, and is an honorary research associate for De Montford University in Leicester.

Yates was awarded an OBE in 2010 for services to local government and takes £5,000 of her council salary in Bristol Pounds.

“It has been an absolute privilege to serve the city during the past three years and I leave with a huge sense of pride in what has been achieved during that period, both within the local authority and for the citizens of Bristol,” Yates said in a statement.

“During my tenure, the council has faced an immensely challenging financial position but I have been dedicated to maintaining frontline services and developing new ways of generating income and expanding our growth sectors for the future.”

She added: “I am also enormously proud of the contribution I was able to make to Bristol’s successful year as European Green Capital, in my role as chief executive of Bristol 2015 Ltd.

“I have been fortunate to work alongside some very talented and dedicated colleagues both in the council and across a range of partnerships as we established a mayoral governance model for cities – and I wish all of them well for the future.”

Yates was paid £250,000 in compensation when she left her job in Hull in 2012.

Bristol City Council said it will be making interim arrangements while it recruits for a permanent chief executive over the coming months.

Mayor Marvin Rees said: “I am grateful for Nicola’s contributions to Bristol and wish her well for the future. She has brought the council a long way in a relatively short time, leaving it with strong governance and a high profile at home and abroad.

“It is very important that we continue doing our best for Bristol and the council will be making interim arrangements while we recruit on a permanent basis.”

Read more: Green Capital: success or flop?