Lawyer takes up new Managing Director role at district council

Solicitor Anthony Roche has this month (18 July) become Managing Director for North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC).

Roche was the council’s Deputy Chief Executive and has worked for NHDC for 12 years.

He joined the local authority as an Assistant Solicitor in May 2008 and was subsequently promoted to Senior Lawyer.

Roche became Corporate Legal Manager and Monitoring Officer at North Hertfordshire in August 2014, positions he held for more than three years before being appointed Deputy Chief Executive.

In February this year NHDC resolved to delete the posts of Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive and to establish a new Managing Director post.

At that meeting, the council also agreed to accept the voluntary redundancy of the Chief Executive, David Scholes.

NHDC said at the time that the decision to make the changes to its most senior structure was due to the need to make £1.35m of annual savings. The changes to the structure are expected to result in forecast savings of around £124k a year from 2021/22 onwards.

Commenting at the time of Roche’s appointment by full council in April, Cllr Martin Stears-Handscomb, Leader of North Hertfordshire, said: “We have complete confidence that Anthony is the right person to drive forward the work of the council and motivate its staff over the coming years, to ensure we continue to serve the residents of North Herts.”

Roche said of his appointment: “I am grateful for all the opportunities the council has given me over the last 12 years and am looking forward to leading the organisation as we work with the community to respond to and recover from, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our recent Corporate Peer Challenge has identified some really exciting and interesting opportunities for the Council and our community and I look forward to working with colleagues and councillors to implement our ideas.”