LIVERPOOL and Knowsley will share a regeneration director after a unique deal was struck between the two councils .

Nick Kavanagh, who has been Knowsley’s executive director of regeneration, economy and skills since 2009 will straddle both boroughs.

He will manage huge projects such as the overhauls of Edge Lane and Anfield and work with both Liverpool FC and Everton FC on their stadium plans, as well as the new plans for Kirkby and a £25m scheme in Stockbridge Village.

Mr Kavanagh will inherit the Liverpool portfolio left by outgoing director John Kelly, whose severance package was nodded through by Liverpool councillors on Friday.

Liverpool City Council leader Cllr Joe Anderson said the move was orchestrated so the city’s most crucial projects @did not suffer while Mr Kelly’s seat was vacant.

He said he could have to wait up to four months to find a permanent replacement, which would have been lost time for Liverpool and Merseyside. The city council is already facing a long wait for a new chief executive after the departure of Colin Hilton.

Mr Kavanagh’s first day in the job was on Friday. He will split his time, spending two days a week in Knowsley and the rest in Liverpool.

Cllr Anderson told the Daily Post: “He is working alongside me and also going to be heading up the team on projects that are important to the city, for instance Liverpool Waters, the Edge Lane development with Derwent Holdings, both Liverpool and Everton football clubs – they are the schemes that Nick will be looking at first to see what he can do to move them on.”

Mr Kavanagh, 41, has been a Knowsley “lifer” after joining the council as an insurance clerk straight out of school aged 16 in 1985.