Top Tory: '˜You can judge us by our results'

Geoff Driver (inset) was speaking after chairing a committee to discuss the Tory-run council’s next move after it attracted only one applicant for the vacant post of chief executive.

It emerged on Monday that Angie Ridgwell, who has been carrying out the newly-combined role of chief executive and director of financial resources on an interim basis since January, is the only person to have expressed an interest in the permanent position.

The full decision of the authority’s cross-party employment committee - which is held in private - is not yet known. The committee meeting was held without its Labour members - after they boycotted the process over the dearth of applicants.

But Coun Driver said Lancashire residents would be more interested in how the council is run: “They will want to be sure that Lancashire County Council is going to provide services for the people of Lancashire – particularly those for our more vulnerable fellow citizens – and that they are going to be financially sustainable.”