Bury Council’s New Chief Executive Lynne Ridsdale starts today

The new chief Executive of Bury Council, Lynne Ridsdale, starts a busy first-day meeting council and NHS staff across Bury today, to hear more about how Bury can continue to strengthen services and work together with Bury people to improve their lives. She will use her first 100 days to formulate priorities by listening to residents, businesses, staff and partners to understand what it is like to receive services from, work for and interact with the council as an organisation.

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. From 2017, Lynne has been a peer reviewer with the Local Government Association, supporting other councils on their improvement plans.

She has also takes on responsibility as place-based lead for Bury’s Health and Care in Bury, 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. Key to this is creating and building strong community teams in each area of the borough and working together with partners to ensure all Bury people realise the benefits from the unprecedented regeneration work going on across the borough’s towns.

Lynne said: “After months of preparation it feels fantastic to finally get started and be able to begin building on the great work happening here in Bury, having worked as Deputy Chief Executive I know how much we have improved, and now as Chief Executive I am positive that we will continue to strengthen our approach even further and build on the great strengths Bury has to offer for the benefit of Bury people and communities. I look forward to working with all our council and NHS staff to achieve our LET’S Do It! strategy and I am very grateful to have this opportunity to enrich life in Bury.”

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, leader of Bury Council, said: “I am delighted that Lynne is now in post as our Chief Executive. Her work as Deputy Chief Executive has shown she has the drive, talent and experience to lead improvements in council and NHS services, and ensure our borough is in the best place to flourish. And now the first substantive female chief executive for Bury.

“I look forward to working with her to deliver the council’s priorities and fulfil our ambitions for Bury in the years ahead: from regenerating our town centres, growing our economy, tackling deprivation and health inequalities and improving people’s skills.”