ALMOST £300,000 is to be paid out in redundancy costs to Cheshire East Council's Director of Public Health.

At a staffing committee meeting held on Tuesday, August 16 councillors unanimously agreed to a voluntary redundancy application from current director, Dr Heather Grimbaldeston, who is resigning following a review of the role.

As a result, a payment of £296,738 will be made to Dr Grimbaldeston, 80 per cent of which will go towards pension contributions, with the remaining 20 per cent forming the redundancy package.

The changes have been made in attempt to reform the health and wellbeing board, where the council will recruit a new director of public health, who will report to the director of adult social care and health.

The new position, which has also been reviewed by Public Health England and the Factulty of Public Health, is a tier four position dropping from a tier two and the new candidate will earn in the region of £86,000 which is a decrease of more than £60,000 from the current salary.

During the meeting, Dorothy Flude, Labour councillor at Cheshire East raised concerns about the future of the borough's strategy for health if the department is not headed up by someone with a medical background.

"Dr Grimbaldeston can handle any situations we find ourselves in," she said. "If the new post will not be filled by a doctor can we be be assured that there will be someone with that capacity?"

Kath O'Dwyer said that nationally there is a 'growing number' of directors of public health who do not have a medical background, and that this is not a requirement for the next candidate.

It is expected that the savings made from Dr Grimbaldeston's redundancy, and the money repaid following her severance package will be over 'over the next four years', although this was deemed a 'generous' period of time, by Sara Barker - head of strategic HR, with the money expected to be paid back in a shorter period.

Other savings are expected to be made as a review of jobs within the department is ongoing.