Bath & North East Somerset Council has approved the appointment of its new CEO, who will net a salary of £175,000 per year.
Sophie Broadfield | Photo © B&NES Council
Sophie Broadfield, who has been the council’s director of sustainable communities since 2021 and previously held senior civil service roles, will take over as the council’s top officer from Will Godfrey.
Mr Godfrey is stepping down as CEO after six years. A full council meeting on 20th November voted unanimously to approve her appointment.
In a statement ahead of the meeting, council leader Kevin Guy said: “Sophie’s strategic experience in making the area a better place for people to live, work, and visit and leading large-scale transformation and organisational culture change fits well with our ambitious plans for Bath and North East Somerset.
“She will continue to lead the council’s work to build a fair, green, creative and connected place where we help to improve people’s lives.”
Ms Broadfield added: “I’m delighted to be appointed chief executive of Bath & North East Somerset Council. This is a wonderful place, and I feel incredibly lucky to call it home.
“I’m looking forward to working with our brilliant colleagues, councillors and partners to make a positive difference for people right across our communities.”
As director of sustainable communities, she led the reset of the council’s local plan and secured investment for transport and travel, and the recent £20m Pride in Place funding for Twerton.
She saw off 30 other candidates to secure the role and will begin on 1st January with a starting salary of £175,000.
Outgoing CEO Mr Godfrey was on a full-time salary of £174,199 as of April 2025 but, since September, he has only been paid to work three days a week as part of a “flexible retirement” to ease the transition to the new CEO.
Mr Godfrey told councillors at the 20th November full council meeting: “It’s been an absolute honour and privilege to have served as your chief executive for the last six years.
“I came in October 2019 full of enthusiasm and thinking we were going to do some great stuff – which we have done – and then obviously six months later Covid came along and it slightly put back some of the things we were going to do.”
Marking the end of 40 years of work in local government, he said: “Local government is an amazing place to work and I want people to always remember that.
“Our mission of improving people’s lives has always been at the core of what I do and has always been really important to me because that’s what I believe government is and does, and that’s what I’ve tried to do every day that I’ve worked in local government.”
He said: “This council delivers some incredible outcomes for our communities and people work really hard to deliver those outcomes.
“Your councillors work really hard to represent your views so please support them as your representatives.”
He added: “I will continue to have a keen interest as a resident holding my councillors to account.”
Councillor Guy said: “Will has led B&NES through some incredible challenges … in particular the Covid pandemic and recovery, which impacted every part of the council.
“He guided many successful initiatives to improve the way we do things locally: delivering the new Keynsham Recycling Centre, retrofitting the civic centre, big changes in adult social services which have been brought back in-house, and the BOB [Being Our Best] process of restructuring within council services.”
He said: “On behalf of us all, I thank you for your hard work and dedication to the council and from us all, best wishes for the future.”
Mr Godfrey received a standing ovation from councillors.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
