IT looks like Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is to have a new chief executive after all.

When Katrine Sporle left in December to take a top Government job as the country's chief planning officer, the council spent £30,000 with a leading local government recruitment firm to find a replacement.

But councillors rejected the shortlisted candidates as not being right for the £120,000-a-year job.

Discussions have been taking place on running the council with a management board of department directors.

But on Friday, council leader Rob Donnelly told The Gazette that because of concerns among people who civic leaders have consulted in the Basingstoke community, he would be recommending to the Cabinet that a chief executive be appointed - although only on a short-term contract for a two-year period.

"We have consulted all the councillors and political groups, the parish councils, voluntary organisations, the business and health communities and our housing partners and there is a consistent theme from their responses," said Cllr Donnelly.

"Many of them find it difficult to imagine life without a chief executive. There is a notion that there has to be somebody that you can identify at the top of the tree for leadership and vision.

"The vision we were trying to put across was that responsibility really lay in the political arena - because we are the people who get voted on year after year. But I am having to recognise that a significant part of the community out there is struggling with this notion. And I don't think we can afford to get too far ahead of the people we work with and the people whose support we rely on.

"So we are going to retain the title of chief executive. This is what I will be putting to the Cabinet. I am also suggesting that we should have it on a fixed-term contract over two years and that we engage the current acting chief executive Gordon Holdcroft, formerly the director of community services, but only for that short-term contract.

His deputy would be Tony Curtis, who would carry on in his position as director of planning, environment and transport.

"We will also recommend that all the council directors become corporate directors so that they will be gradually moved out of their departments."

Cllr Donnelly explained that the aim was to have several corporate or strategic directors who would work in the middle of the authority to make sure that strategy and vision was promoted.

He added: "The departments would then become a number of business units with the service head responsible for them.

"What we are trying to do is get away from what we term 'silos.' These are big departments that people disappear into and are never seen again.

"In fact, we have made significant strides in breaking down that silo mentality.

"We really want our departments to be co-operating with each other."