Moray chief officer's cancer fight
MORAY Council’s chief executive Alastair Keddie is on long-term sick leave after being diagnosed with cancer.
His treatment is expected to continue for many months.
At a special meeting of the full council this morning, elected members appointed Roddy Burns to act as interim chief executive during Mr Keddie’s absence.
Formerly the council’s chief legal officer, Mr Burns (51) is currently the corporate director of strategic planning and governance.
Educated in his native Glasgow and in Ayrshire, he graduated in law from Aberdeen University before joining Moray District Council as a trainee solicitor 30 years ago.
Mr Burns said: "We were all shocked when Alastair was diagnosed and had to leave at short notice for treatment and we have all sent our best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
"He is a difficult act to follow but I am delighted that the members have placed their confidence in me to help steer the council through these difficult economic times.
"We are undergoing a period of significant change to our working practices to be more efficient and customer-focused, have undergone a management restructure that has reduced the level of management and face challenges from the impact of the defence review on our local RAF bases.
"Any one of these elements would be a major challenge to an organisation, so dealing with all these and delivering our services as usual places a huge burden on staff and resources.
"However, I am confident that staff, managers and directors will all pull together and rise to the challenges that we face."
Councillor George McIntyre, council convener, added his best wishes to Mr Keddie’s recovery.
He said: "It was a blow to us all when Alastair announced that he had to undergo treatment and we all look forward to his full recovery. But clearly the council must have a chief executive and we invited applications from our existing senior staff.
"It was a difficult choice but we believe that in Roddy Burns we have an excellent man for the job for this interim period."
