Stephen Moir's appointment as chief executive of Cambridgeshire CC was, he says, a rigorous process, with a collection of panels and presentations. But it was far easier than the chief executive recruitment process he ran in for the council in 2008 when he headed up the HR function.

Mr Moir was left negotiating a HR minefield after the then-leader called the successful candidate – Mark Lloyd who is now chief executive of the Local Government Association (LGA) – and tried to convince him not to take the job. In the end, unusually for local government, it was the leader who had to step down, while Mr Lloyd remained chief for the next seven years.