It is time for change, says departing council boss

Anna Earnshaw said being West Northamptonshire Council's chief executive had been a "really interesting job"

A chief executive of a council said she would be leaving the role after four years because it was "time for a change".

Anna Earnshaw was appointed when West Northamptonshire Council was established in 2021.

She will depart from the Reform UK-led authority on Friday.

Ms Earnshaw said it had been a "seven-day-a-week role" that she was very proud to have taken on, but it was the "right time to go".

Ms Earnshaw joined the former Northamptonshire County Council in 2016, later becoming its director of adult social care and in 2020 was appointed deputy chief executive.

At the time, the county council was effectively going bankrupt and central government decided to abolish the authority and seven other councils across Northamptonshire.

She told BBC Radio Northampton's Annabel Amos that when she lost her husband six years ago she was able to dedicate more of her time to the council.

Anna Earnshaw acted as returning officer for West Northamptonshire Council's elections

Ms Earnshaw said: "When I first joined, I think it was fairly obvious to me there were some problems and personally and professionally I went out of my way to make sure that was identified.

"As director of adult social care I took a lot of responsibility to transform it and make it more efficient.

"Perhaps because of that success and history - I was able to stay on and make a difference and improve things."

"There are so many things to be proud of," she said, including working to get the Sixfields stadium East Stand built, after a ten-year delay and opening Tiffield Academy, near Towcester, in 2025, for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

She added she was also pleased to have secured millions of pounds in investment for Northampton's town centre and the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal.

Passionate administration

Ms Earnshaw said creating a new unitary authority was "the right thing to do and I think it's been a success".

"It's been a real privilege, there's no job like it in the country.

"I can go from one day talking to someone whose homeless and the next day I'll be at some £350m warehouse development."

The role has not been without criticism and she said "sometimes it's very deserved and sometimes it's not".

"I answer my own complaints and follow up on them and maybe that's why it's a seven-day-a-week job for me," she said.

She added she had decided to leave her role before the local elections in May, when Reform UK won overall control of the council from the Conservatives.

"We're here to serve whichever administration, [Reform UK] has been very professional, very interested and very passionate about things, as have the previous administrations," she said.

Alongside spending more time with her family, she said she planned to continue to work with councils that were struggling and support others going through local government reform.