Byron Council General Manager, Ken Gainger, has announced his retirement after serving councils in NSW and Victoria for more than 50 years.

He has spent the past 25 years as a council CEO and General Manager serving as Byron Council GM for the past five years.

Mr Gainger took up his role with Byron Council in early 2013 at a time when Council had received reports from the Office of Local Government declaring that its finances and infrastructure renewal backlog were in a parlous state and that the outlook was trending towards further deterioration.

Under Mr Gainger’s leadership Council’s finances are now healthy and annual infrastructure spending has increased dramatically rising from $3.75M per year in 2012/13 to $40M in 2017/18.

As a consequence Byron Council was declared by the State Government as “Fit for the Future” in 2016 and its on-going role as an independent local government entity was assured.

Mr Gainger, who turns 70 next year, said that he has been discussing his retirement plans with the Mayor, Simon Richardson, since February this year.

He said that he has thoroughly enjoyed his time at Byron Council and expressed his appreciation for the friendship, support and dedication of staff and councillors.

Mr Gainger intends to spend time in retirement travelling, spending more time with his family and his 12 grandchildren, camping and bushwalking.