CEREDIGION County Council has announced the replacement for retiring chief executive Bronwen Morgan.

Eifion Evans has been the council’s deputy chief executive since 2015 and a closed special council meeting agreed to endorse his application to take over as chief executive.

Ms Morgan will retire as chief executive at the end of September. Mr Evans, who was one of two candidates interviewed for the job, is due to take over on 1 October.

Mr Evans has worked in the county for more than 21 years, as a teacher, headteacher and then taking over as director of education in the council, before becoming deputy chief executive.

Council leader Ellen ap Gwynn said: “I’d like to congratulate Eifion on his new position - serving the people of Ceredigion is a very special privilege.

“Opportunities and challenges face our county and I’m looking forward to working closely with our new chief executive to ensure the best for the county’s residents.”

Mr Evans takes over at a time when the council is facing making further cuts as central funding for the authority is slashed further. Recent years have seen a string of staff redundancies, including 112 staff members made redundant in the last financial year.

During his time as director of education Mr Evans was involved with several controversial closures of small schools, as well as establishing new area schools across the county.

He was also involved in the council’s decision to appoint consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide cost-cutting proposals, which saw the company receive a rumoured £2m at a time when the authority was making a series of cuts to services.

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