Bury’s new council chief promises to ‘listen to residents’ to form priorities

Bury’s new council chief stated a her new role this week by meeting council and NHS staff across the borough. The authority’s new chief executive Lynne Ridsdale said she will use her first 100 days to form priorities by listening to residents, businesses and staff to understand what it is like to receive services from, work for and interact with the council.

To kick off her first day she met council staff and those using council services during visits to the Victoria Family Centre, Killelea Residential Care Home and COSALEA café. Lynne previously served Bury Council as deputy chief executive, having joined Bury in 2018 from Manchester City Council, where she was director of human resources and organisational development.

Before that she held the same role with the National Crime Agency, and previously worked as an assistant director at Bolton Council. She takes over from previous chief executive Geoff Little, who performed the role from 2018, until he retired last week after more than four decades working in the public sector.

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Since 2017, Lynne has also been a peer reviewer with the Local Government Association, supporting other councils on their improvement plans. She has also takes on responsibility as lead for Bury’s health and care, working as part of the Greater Manchester Integrated Commissioning System.

Lynne led the development of Bury’s shared vision for 2030, LET’S Do It! and will continue to work with partners to meet the ambitions set out in it. She said the key to this would be building strong community teams in each area of the borough to ensure all Bury people realise the benefits from the regeneration