Fenland District Council has probably got the region’s largest concentration of food companies.

Its finance director is set to keep his £100,000-a-year job - despite emigrating to Australia.

Mat Taylor, 44, will continue working one day a week for Fenland District Council after he sets up home 10,000 miles away in Adelaide.

“When the idea was put to me my first question was - is there a precedent?” council leader Geoff Harper said yesterday.

“The answer was 'no'. I then asked if it was legal and was told that it was. So here we are - and the council is confident it will work well both for us and Mat.

“We have found an exciting and innovative way of retaining his considerable expertise until we have recruited someone who can replace him.

“We are the first local authority in the country fully to utilise modern technology to deliver a highly cost-effective solution to the problem of maintaining continuity when there is a change in key personnel.

“Retaining Mat's services is much more cost-efficient than bringing in an interim finance director.”

Mr Taylor, who has worked for the council for five years and will be paid on a pro-rata basis, said: “Fenland has been a fantastic place to live and work.

“I first moved to March in 1996 and in that time I've seen an amazing improvement in both the council and Fenland. As a resident of Fenland for 12 years, I'm really looking forward to being able to remain connected to the great things going on at the council.”

The council's deputy chief executive Sandra Claxton said: “Modern technology within the council linked to the World Wide Web, ensures that there are no obstacles in communication.”

For weeks the council has tried to talk Mr Taylor out of quitting- and out of emigrating- and there was even talk of allowing him to take a sabbatical to give him time to see if he liked working down under.

Ms Claxton told the council's staff committee- at a confidential briefing- that Mr Taylor's “excellent finance management” had played a pivotal role in the council's success story. As part of the council's transformation it was “a position it will wish to retain.”

She said that the only other option open to the council was to appoint an interim manager- at a cost of £800 a day- and begin the process to find Mr Taylor's successor.

Mr Harper said the new arrangements would be “cost neutral”.