HEREFORDSHIRE needs someone to lead a revolution. Adverts go out this week for a chief executive to head the proposed Public Service Trust (PST) that combines Herefordshire Council with the county's Primary Care Trust.

Pitched as a revolutionary chance to change the way local government works, the chief executive's appointment depends on the results of the PST consultation programme - reported in the Hereford Times earlier this month - and ongoing discussions with Whitehall and various regional bodies.

For a six-figure salary, said to be around £170,000 a year, the PST chief executive would effectively head both the council and the primary care trust and be responsible for an annual budget of more than £300 million.

Robert Blower, for Hereford-shire Council, said the post needed someone showing "consistent achievement" at chief executive level or substantial senior management experience in an organisation of comparable size and complexity.

"The aim is to have a chief executive in place at the earliest opportunity so that preparations can be made for the PST to be operational by April next year," said Mr Blower.

As a project, the PST is widely recognised as potentially the most advanced local government and health partnership in the UK. Herefordshire Council and the Primary Care Trust are consulting on the initiative until the end of the month.

The project combines the way both bodies plan, purchase and design services, with the chief executive accountable to a PST board and jointly accountable to both the council and the primary care trust - each of which would remain as legal entities in their own right.