HUNTINGDONSHIRE’S chief executive David Monks could leave the district council next spring.

The full council will be asked to decide at its meeting in December whether to endorse an application for him to take voluntary early release from HDC on enhanced terms.

Mr Monks, a lawyer who has been with the council for a decade, and who previously served councils in Warwickshire and elsewhere, is an acknowledged expert on electoral law, a subject on which he has published several books.

Not only does he act as Returning Officer for elections in Huntingdonshire and for the Huntingdon Parliamentary constituency but he also presides over Eastern Regional elections for the European Parliament.

Two other senior officers whose release has been agreed by the council are Roy Reeves, head of democratic and central services, who is also clerk to Warboys Parish Council, and Richard Preston, who oversaw the successful delivery of the �24m project to provide the council with a new operational depot and headquarters complex.

A council spokesman said: “Like many businesses in the current economic climate, Huntingdonshire District Council needs to make savings.

“As part of our savings plan scheme for the coming four years we have identified a need to make staff reductions. A voluntary release scheme was launched in September through which senior managers were invited to put forward applications for redundancy.

“We have a target for making �300,000 savings a year for four years through reducing senior management posts.

“These releases will help enable the council to achieve its target savings, and the retirements of these officers, earlier than anticipated, will enable the savings to be made sooner.

“Members have made their decisions in respect of Mr Reeves and Mr Preston with confidence that their roles can be absorbed through reorganisation of structures within the appropriate services and realignment of work, while still maintaining an acceptable level of service.”