I shall not add further comment on the departure of Andrea Hill from Suffolk, other than to say that she probably left with less pay-off than she hoped and that the council avoided a drawn-out employment tribunal which might have cost it a lot more in the long-run.

It has been a unique case and hopefully, brings to an end a chapter in central-local relations in which a minority of well-paid council chief executives were used as scapegoats by a combination of ministerial special advisers and tabloid newspapers to rubbish the entire sector.