Three people are facing their final interview today (Friday, June 17) to see who will take on the role of the council’s chief legal advisor.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s senior staff committee went into private session to interview the three candidates – whittled down from nine applicants – and will then appoint a head of law and governance.

At the last senior staff committee in April two candidates took part in final interviews for the post of head of planning and minutes signed off today state that the person appointed is Nicola Gandy.

Ms Gandy will leave her post of director of planning and park direction at Pembrokeshire Coast National Park to take on the role.

The head of law and governance is described as a “critical post” and the person appointed will be the council’s principal legal advisor, reporting to the chief executive Will Bramble, and responsible for leading the “in-house legal function.”

They will also be the council’s monitoring officer “providing advice and guidance to Members and officers on the member Code of Conduct thereby promoting high standards of ethical conduct, advising on member interests and maintaining registers of interests for the authority and undertaking investigations as appropriate.”

The committee heard from recruitment company Gatenby Sanderson’s Seb Lowe that following a four-week promotional and recruitment campaign there had been nine applications, from which six were selected for first interviews.

A technical reviewed was carried out and five were considered “technically able to the job”.

They met with the chief executive, assistant chief executive and other senior officers before the final three candidates were selected for today’s appearance at committee.