FORMER town councillor and mayor Debby Bunn has lasted less than six months in the �75,000-a-year job as managing director of Roddons Housing Association.

She has been off work for some weeks and yesterday it was announced she had quit the organisation she only took over in February.

“Debby Bunn has resigned from her position as managing director of Roddons,” said a brief statement from parent housing group Circle Anglia.

“Christopher Smith, who was previously managing director of Roddons, and has been closely involved in Roddons in his role as regional operations director for Circle, will take on the day-to-day running of the organisation.

“Christopher will be leading on the recruitment for a new managing director, together with Brenda Reynolds, chairman of Roddons Board.”

Mrs Reynolds said: “Roddons is in safe hands with Christopher at the helm, and we will work together to find a new managing director to lead the organisation into the future.”

Ms Bunn, 37, and Mayor of March in 2005, joined Roddons in 2008 as head of customer care.

She left school at 16 to enter a career in media and marketing. She moved into a police role, as operations manager for Cambridgeshire Police Countryside Watch, and was only 30 when she became Mayor of March.

She described her appointment to the top job as “challenging but rewarding. Our customers do have very high expectations and I’m pleased to say that they are not afraid to say thank you when we get it right”.

She also said: “It’s a really good opportunity and I have got a great board. We have got a bunch of really hard-working people who want to meet the promises that have been made – better homes and better estates, while putting residents at the heart of everything we do.”

She is the second high profile candidate to quit soon after being appointed to a senior role within Roddons.

In June, former Fenland District Council licensing officer and retired police chief superintendent Mick Gipp suddenly left Roddons within months of his appointment to the customer care role previously held by Ms Bunn.

Earlier Roddons had issued a strongly worded statement defending the appointment of Mr Gipp to the �52,000-a-year assistant director’s role following reports that he had once been Ms Bunn’s line manager at Cambridgeshire Police.

Mr Smith said at the time that “we would not normally comment on the personal lives of our staff, but on this occasion consider it important to do so as the allegations involved are wholly unfounded and untrue”.

Mr Gipp was offered the role “after a rigorous and objective recruitment exercise.

“This involved not only Debby Bunn as managing director but also two other members of the Roddons Senior Management Team.

“Mr Gipp was clearly the outstanding candidate.”

Mr Smith revealed that talk locally of Mr Gipp and Ms Bunn being involved in any form of relationship was wide of the mark.

“From the perspective of any relationship of a personal relationship there is no romantic relationship between them and never has been,” said Mr Smith.

He said Circle Anglia knew full well that Mr Gipp, in his time with Cambs Police, was Ms Bunn’s line manager and this had been declared throughout all stages of recruitment.

The recruitment of Mr Gipp was “completely objective, completely without any bias and Mr Gipp was unanimously offered the role”.

Roddons is part of Circle Anglia and was set up in November 2007 to manage the transfer of 3,650 homes from Fenland District Council.