SPECULATION was growing last night that Wirral Council’s chief executive is to leave his post.

If his departure is confirmed as expected today, Steve Maddox will be the latest in a spate of senior Merseyside council officers to go.

Senior members of the authority met last night to consider a request for early voluntary retirement.

Sources confirmed to the Daily Post the request was made by Mr Maddox, but no one from the council would comment.

Mr Maddox, of Chester, was awarded the OBE for services to local government in 2008.

According to a Freedom of Information request last year, he took home an annual salary of £132,104.

Mr Maddox has steered Wirral Council through some of its more turbulent periods in the recent past.

In 2003, he was forced to step in as leader while talks to try and find common ground between the three political groups were held during electoral deadlock.

More recently, he helped oversee Wirral’s hosting of the Open golf championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, in Hoylake, in 2006.

Last year saw controversy in the borough over planned closures of libraries across Wirral, while in March this year, Alan Stennard, the council’s director of regeneration, announced he was retiring.