THE Swindon Council director with responsibility for Wichelstowe and the new 4G broadband project is being laid off in a bid to find an estimated £14million to balance the budget in 2013/14.

Hitesh Patel, board director for transformation and strategic projects, will leave before the start of April, when his post will be abolished. The council has identified £1.3m of workforce savings in 2013/14, primarily in management, as part of its massive Stronger Together reorganisation.

Mr Patel, who is also responsible for leading the ongoing drive to redesign services, is the most senior staff member to leave Swindon Council since deputy chief executive Celia Carrington, whose departure was announced in October 2011.

Chief executive, Gavin Jones, said it was not a reflection on Mr Patel’s performance, just a necessity in hard economic times.

He said: “This is not about somebody who has been underperforming.

“Unfortunately, it’s the harsh world we’re in that means we simply cannot afford to keep the level of management costs we have had to date.

“There are quite a few posts that will go. Hitesh is only one and being the highest paid that’s most significant. There are quite a few other posts that are being restructured or deleted as part of that.

“But that’s currently out to consultation, so we’ll know more in about three weeks when we finish the consultation.”

Mr Patel, who previously worked as director of IT for the Asia-Pacific region at drinks firm Diageo, joined the council in about 2005/6 as the director of IT, before being promoted to director of business transformation.

The Wichelstowe and the 4G broadband project will be moved under other directorates while his responsibility for redesigning services will be shared among several senior officers, which the council thinks is the best way to take the project forward.

Mr Jones, who made the decision to delete the post following consultation with party leaders, said: “Hitesh has been incredibly professional about this.

“The guy knows he is not going to have a job at the end of this, but he is still working in an absolutely focused way to get these projects to a state of good handover when he goes.

“I think that’s to the measure of the man, really.”

Swindon Council’s cross-party special committee of senior councillors will meet on Monday to agree the new management structure and Mr Patel’s level of redundancy severance. Mr Jones said the recommended level would be in accordance with normal policy.

Mr Patel received a total salary and allowances of £130,112 in 2011/12. Ms Carrington, who earned £140,000 a year, is thought to have received an exit package of between £60,000 and £80,000.