WIRRAL Council's chief officer charged with leading the borough's tourism strategy has left the authority under a voluntary severance arrangement.

Emma Degg, who was also responsible for community engagement, left at her own request on Friday.

Her departure comes at an unfortunate time as the leader of the council last week pledged to grow the borough's tourism economy by 100 million pounds over the next five years.

But a council spokesman said today: “We can confirm that Emma Degg left the council on Friday, July 17, following her request for voluntary severance and an agreement being reached with her.

"We wish her well for the future.”

At this point the value of any severance package is unknown but the Globe is given to understand it included a compromise agreement, although this has not been confirmed and the council routinely declines to discuss details of departing personnel.

Ms Degg joined the authority in 2002 as communication and marketing manager.

Under now-departed chief executive Graham Burgess, she was also appointed as head of neighbourhood and community engagement, co-ordinating several large-scale consultation exercises.

Ms Degg was actively involved with the Wirral Waters docklands regeneration initiative and on a number of occasions travelled with other senior officers and business representatives on trade missions to the Far East to encourage investment.

She was also closely associated with bringing the Open Golf Championships back to Hoylake and acted as liaison between the R&A governing body and the council both in 2006 and 2014.

Her leaving comes just as a new report by the city region's local enterprise partnership showed the borough's tourism economy is up nearly 40% since 2009 and supports 4,800 full-time jobs.

Speaking at the time of the document's publication, council leader Cllr Phil Davies said: “It is one of our ‘Wirral 2020’ pledges to grow our visitor economy to £450 million in the next five years.

"It is encouraging that, despite the challenging economic climate, we are seeing our peninsula’s visitor economy continue to flourish and we are well on the way to meeting this pledge.”