A former local authority chief executive has been recruited by Southampton City Council to focus on “critical” bin collections.

Debbie Ward will be responsible for housing and waste teams in her role as interim executive director for resident services.

She was appointed to the post, which is expected to be in place for 12 months, following a chief officer employment panel in March.

READ MORE: Southampton council responds to proposed bin collection changes

While the panel session took place with the press and public excluded, Ms Ward was named in minutes of the meeting published last month.

Ms Ward was chief executive of Dorset County Council from 2012 to 2018, which covered the years running up to the merger of councils in Dorset.

More recently she was interim director for transformation at Homes England, the government agency which funds affordable housing.

In a statement to the LDRS, Southampton City Council spokesperson said: “To deliver the transformation we need, we must have the right team structures in place.

“A new resident services directorate which includes our housing and waste teams has been created to help us deliver these critical services in a more cost-effective and efficient way.

“It also allows the executive director of growth and prosperity to focus on our plans for economic growth and greater prosperity for residents and businesses.

“The cost of employing an additional executive director has been budgeted for as part of the transformation savings they are tasked with delivering.”

Housing and waste services are both areas which have been subject to scrutiny in recent months.

Bin collections across the city have faced disruption following the introduction of a new working practice in January.

Meanwhile, current figures suggest there are more than 8,000 applicants on the city’s social housing waiting list, with ongoing issues around the quality of the housing stock and the number of council houses sitting empty for weeks on end.

The council is in the process of formalising its plan to restructure large parts of the local authority.

A condition of the in principle £121million of exceptional financial support from government includes the council submitting its transformation and improvement plan by August 27.

Up to £10.6million of the capitalisation direction, which involves using capital resources to cover revenue costs, is for the transformation and improvement programme.

A further £12.2million is for possible restructuring costs, such as redundancies.

The council has also appointed a new executive director of growth and prosperity following a chief officer employment panel on April 26.

This recruitment filled a vacant position but the local authority cannot currently release the name of the new officer.