Andrew Kerr, the former chief executive of Wiltshire Council, could be in line for the top job at the neighbouring council in Bath just weeks after he received a £144,000 pay off from his former employers.

The 53-year-old lost his £183,000-per-year job last October when Wiltshire Council made an additional £1.4m cut to the budget in order to balance the books.

Mr Kerr’s redundancy pay-off was £144,000 but the golden handshake, after only serving in the post for 18 months, was quickly followed by Mr Kerr’s job application for the role of chief executive at Bath and North East Somerset Council .

The current chief executive John Everitt will retire by April and a successor will be appointed but it is understood Mr Kerr has yet to be interviewed.

Mr Kerr was widely tipped for the £150,000-per-year job because of his ability to handle the huge budget reductions imposed on Wiltshire Council while still delivering frontline services.

But the father-of-three, who recently bought a house in Neston, near Corsham, fell on his own sword when his plan to make further redundancies was taken up by council leaders but used to get rid of him too.

Leader of the council Jane Scott has since offered her blessing to him in his quest to take up the nearby job.

In a recent meeting she told councillors: “Mr Kerr did not leave under any sort of cloud.

“I have offered to give the chief executive a good reference – the problem wasn’t with him, but with us wanting a different kind of structure.

“The new structure is working extremely well.

“Our three corporate directors have their own individual responsibilities but when it is needed they are able to come quickly together to make a collective decision which we are finding to be a good way of working.

“I am happy to give Andrew a reference but I have not been contacted by anyone from BANES yet.”