CALLS are being made to scrap the job of chief executive at Worcestershire County Council in the wake of Clare Marchant's looming departure.

County Hall's Labour group says it will make a fresh attempt to get the top £155,000-a-year role deleted this summer, with her workload divided up among other managers.

The suggestion has been criticised as "unhelpful" by the Lib Dems, while the Conservative leadership insists any decision can only be made by a new administration after May's elections.

As the Worcester News reported yesterday, Ms Marchant is departing in June after landing the chief executive job at university admissions service UCAS.

Cllr Peter McDonald, Labour group leader, said: "We wouldn't have a chief executive at all if it was up to us.

"We'd turn this council into a co-operative one and go without that job at County Hall.

"We need to get in the real world, not one where we've got one job paying 13 or 14 times what some other people earn."

But Councillor Liz Tucker, who leads the Lib Dem group, called it "unhelpful" and made it clear she would not agree with any bid to ditch the job.

Conservative Councillor Simon Geraghty, the leader, said: "It will be for a new administration to decide what to do - this is not something for any current administration to look at a few weeks before all-out elections.

"I'm sure it's something all the group leaders will look at, but not this close to the elections.

"Legally, I think the council does has to have a 'head of paid service' - some councils call them chief executives, some call them a managing director, some even call them head of paid service, but someone has to be heading up the organisation."

Ms Marchant was paid £155,523 in the 2015/16 financial year, and also got a pension top-up of £19,352 and claimed £1,422 in expenses.

The suggestion comes after it emerged how Bournemouth Council has scrapped its chief executive job, giving its post-holder Tony Williams a £394,000 redundancy package.

Other councils have been urged to do the same in recent years, although the tactic is still rare.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has also called the role "unnecessary", responding to an inquiry into chief executive pay in 2014 by saying the job can "weaken the ability of a council’s political leadership".