BASINGSTOKE council's chief executive Katrine Sporle is leaving the borough to take up a high-powered Government post.

Katrine, 47, who has been the leading council officer at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council for the past eight years, has been appointed as chief planning officer for the planning inspectorate for England and Wales.

Her new post - under the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott - is based in Bristol. One of her main tasks will be to spearhead the reform of the planning system in the two countries.

Welcoming her appointment, Planning Minister Tony McNulty said: "I am delighted to have Katrine on-board and look forward to working with her during this exciting time.

"Katrine's track record speaks for itself and I have every confidence she will help us take our reforms forward."

Katrine, who takes up her new post in January, said: "This is an exciting time to be joining the planning inspectorate. Having led a local authority, I know just how much influence the planning system can have on the local community. I want to work with the Government to make the planning system more responsive to the needs of the community."

She added: "Although I'm extremely sad to be stepping down from the council, I'm so proud of the immense strides forward that this borough has taken in my time here.

"Basingstoke and Deane is in a position of great strength for the future and I'm positive that the good work will continue. We are definitely at the dawn of a new era."

Katrine, originally from Swindon, was a planning officer for Salisbury and later Westminster councils.

She joined Basingstoke council in 1992 as director of administration and two years later was appointed chief executive. In that post, she now oversees a team of 550 staff and a council which has a property portfolio earning £11million a year and an investment portfolio of £140million.

Paying tribute to the chief executive's contribution to borough life, council leader Cllr Brian Gurden said: "I am really pleased for her to have obtained such a prestigious job. I believe it reflects upon the quality of the work she has done on behalf of the community here in Basing-stoke and Deane for over a decade.

"There have been five leaders of the council in the period of eight or nine years we have been working on Festival Place but Katrine has been the common denominator throughout that time. I think it is fair to say that a lot of the progress made around the borough has been substantially down to her expert contribution.

"I would pay tribute to that and wish her well in her new post. I think she has gone as far as she can go here and the opening of Festival Place this week was the culmination of more than a decade of outstanding service to the community."

Deputy leader Cllr Rob Donnelly said: "She is going to be a tough act to follow. She has achieved very significant changes in Basingstoke.

"This year, we have seen the culmination of much of that change with the opening of The Orchard, the Aquadrome and Festival Place - which has changed the face of Basingstoke.

"I think it is tremendous that she has got such a high profile Government job. She leaves at the high point in her career in Basingstoke."

Conservative group leader Cllr John Leek said: "Personally, I am disappointed that she is going. I think she has done a good job for Basingstoke but I can understand her reasons for leaving.

"After you have been doing something for 10 years, you tend to want to move on to something more challenging."

Independent councillor David Leeks said: "I am pleased for her but she will be greatly missed in Basingstoke. I think she has done a splendid job and is going out on a real high after seeing the opening of Festival Place, not forgetting all the other projects she has overseen in the borough."