CEO of Belfast City Council set for new job as Jersey’s top civil servant.
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CEO of Belfast City Council set for new job as Jersey’s top civil servant.

BELFAST-BORN Suzanne Wyle, CEO of Belfast City Council, is set to take up a £250,000 a year job as Jersey’s top civil servant.

The island, which lies off the coast of France, has a population of over 100,000.

According to the Bailiwick Express, Ms Wylie is on course to take up the post of CEO in the Channel Islands next year.

Ms Wylie has been Belfast City Council’s Chief Executive since 2014, after a career in local government administration.

She was previously Director of Health and Environmental Services.

During her time at the helm in Belfast she has had to deal with challenges unlikely to crop up in Jersey, such as the ongoing issue of loyalist bonfires, and the fall-out the funeral of IRA man and senior Sinn Féin member, Bobby Storey.

The funeral of the leading republican took place during lockdown last June.

Earlier this year Ms Wylie apologised “wholeheartedly and unreservedly” over the handling of the funeral.

Families were unable to attend cremation services on the same day as the one held for Storey — something Ms Wylie later described in a statement as an “error of judgment”.

Former Chief Executive of the London Boroughs of Wandsworth and Richmond Paul Martin currently holds Jersey’s top government job on an interim basis.

His 12-month contract is due to expire at the end of February 2022 when it is expected that Ms Wylie will take over.

Jersey is a self-governing British Crown Dependency with its own financial and legal systems and courts of law.