A “UNIQUE” deal that saw Liverpool and Knowsley councils share a regeneration director has ended after less than four months.

Nick Kavanagh, who has been Knowsley’s Executive Director of Regeneration, was supposed to straddle both boroughs.

He had been splitting his time with two days in Knowsley and the rest in Liverpool since September.

But he is now working five days a week in Liverpool – ending what both councils had hailed as a groundbreaking deal at the time the jobshare was announced.

Last month, relations soured between the two councils after Knowsley objected to £200m plans to regenerate Edge Lane Retail Park.

It led to Liverpool council leader Joe Anderson denouncing the neighbouring authority.

Liverpool’s cabinet member for regeneration, Cllr Malcolm Kenned, confirmed Mr Kavanagh was working five days a week for the city, and dismissed claims that it was connected to the fall-out from the Edge Lane planning row as “speculation.”

Last night, Liverpool council insisted the relationship was working well.

A spokesman for the city said: “We approached Knowsley to see whether we could use some more of Nick’s time, given the number of large planning applications we are dealing with, in particular, Liverpool Waters, the largest planning application in the UK. They very kindly obliged and the relationship is working well.”