IT has been revealed that Dr Mohammed Mehmet, is set to take over the hottest seat in Welsh Local Governement and become the new acting chief executive of Powys County Council.

He is expected to take up his new role in Llandrindod Wells later this month, just days after leaving the £127,000 a year chief executives role at Denbighshire County Council in North Wales.

The move follows a recommendations from the Welsh Government and Welsh Local Government Association that the role is part of a package of support provided to help the council to implement changes and improvements.

The announcement of his appointment came from council leader Cllr Rosemarie Harris at today's, extraordinary meeting of Powys County Council.

Councillors had said that they wanted to find a chief executive that could steer the authority through it's "transformation agenda."

Cllr Harris, said that the the appointment came partly from, a report by Sean Harriss who helped the Children's Services start recovering, with "state of the nation" report that would help the authority going forward.

Cllr Harris, said: "We need an acting chief executive with transformation expertise had at another local authority.

"We interviewed two people for the role and decided to appoint Mohammed Memet.

"He has been chief executive of Denbighshire for the last decade and turned around crises in education and children's services there and has turned it around into one of the best performing authorities in he country.

"he has just finished, and needs a few days off, we hope he will be able to start later this month."

Dr Mehmet has been given a nine month contract, and the existing chief executive, Jeremy Patterson remains on sick leave.

Cllr Harris paid tribute to David Powell who has led the crisis struck council for several months.

“I would like to thank David Powell for the way he has carried out the role of chief executive at a very difficult time following the inspection of children’s services. I’m pleased that David has accepted the role of Deputy Chief Executive and will work closely with Mohammed to continue the delivery of the council’s transformation and improvement agenda."

Known as a local authority troubleshooter, Dr Mehmet a fomer mathematics lecturer joined Denbighshire council on a six month contract in late 2007 as an interim corporate director for lifelong learning.

When he announced his decision to standdown from the helm at Denbighshire, back in October 2017 he said he believed it was "time for a change."

In March, in an interview before leaving the authority, Cyprus born Dr Mehmet welcomed renewed calls from, the Welsh Government to slash councils down from 22 to 10 (Powys would be unaffected) and warned that anymore funding cuts would leave cash-strapped authorities "unable to function."