MIKE Lusty, the council's director of education and community, has confirmed that he is to retire from his post at the end of the month.
It is thought that it was unlikely that he would return to the council after he suffered a serious accident at his home on Christmas Eve, shortly after announcing he would retire later this year. But Dr Lusty has now brought that forward.
In a statement, he said: "Following my accident over the Christmas period it is clear that with the recovery period I need for my fractures to heal, I couldn't reasonably be back at work for some time."
Dr Lusty joined Swindon's shadow unitary authority in October 1996 and was chief education officer when the council's education authority was severely criticised by government inspectors in an Ofsted report last June.
A new Education Partnership Steering Group has been established to run the ailing education authority, and it is expected the council's chief executive, Paul Doherty, will take over from where Dr Lusty left off on a temporary basis.
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