£200,000 top job advertised

The man who helped lead Rochdale into the congestion charge referendum is quitting just four months after the resounding no vote.

David Leather, interim chief executive of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, has been seconded to the role since 2006.

Now the executive is advertising to replace him with a permanent appointment — and the successful candidate will shoot straight to the top of Greater Manchester’s rich list of public officials — with a salary of £200,000.

The authority has tried once before to appoint a new chief executive with wages far higher than the prime minister earns but the search proved fruitless.

Father-of-three Mr Leather, who lives in Bowdon, was finance director and deputy chief executive of Manchester 2002, the company set up to run the Commonwealth Games. He moved to Manchester Airport as finance director before joining Ernst & Young as an audit partner.

He has always said that he did not want to do the PTE job permanently and his departure was predicted by many insiders as soon as the Transport Innovation Fund bid was abandoned last December.

He leaves a slimmed-down GMPTE but bosses there do not believe that his boots can be filled by just one person. They are also advertising for a £150,000-a-year chief operating officer.

The recruitment is being handled by top recruitment agency Veredus and the successful applicant would topple Manchester city council’s chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein – who earns £186,000 from his position as the highest public sector earner.

Applicants are told that they “must lead the development of high quality public transport for a modern city and region and also influence the wider national public transport agenda”.