Bury Council’s chief executive has quit the day before he was due to a face a disciplinary hearing.

Mike Owen handed in his resignation with effect from midnight on Sunday.

He was due before a disciplinary panel on Monday along with two other officers.

Mr Owen and director of children’s services Mark Carriline were found to have ‘deliberately’ delayed carrying out child protection procedures when a councillor was accused of indecent child image offences. The hearing was scheduled to last three days.

They were suspended in February with monitoring officer Jayne Hammond. Ms Hammond was suspended due to concerns over legal advice she had given regarding the matter.

The disciplinary for Mr Carriline and Ms Hammond concluded on Tuesday.

It's understood Mr Owen will not receive any severance package from the town hall.

A review earlier this year found that Mr Owen and Mr Carriline had ‘inexplicably’ and ‘deliberately’ delayed implementing safeguard procedures when allegations about former Labour councillor Simon Carter first came to light.

The then councillor for Tottington, who was on the adoption register at the time, had been accused of making indecent child images in Spring 2015 and was convicted the following September.

An investigation found that the three officers had waited up to five weeks to carry out a string of child protection measures that should have been implemented within 24 or 48 hours of the allegations surfacing.

That included taking eight days to inform the school where he was governor.

Although Carter was immediately removed from the council’s list of people approved to adopt children, a range of measures aimed at protecting children took days or weeks to be carried out, according to a report.

In June 2015, Carter admitted 16 counts of making indecent images of children at Bolton Crown Court.

The charges related to the downloading of images.

There is no suggestion any children were harmed as a result of the safeguarding delays.

An external review found the three officers had lost sight of the fact that their first duty was meant to be to any children that could be harmed by Carter.

Following Tuesday's hearing, Coun Rishi Shori, Leader of Bury Council, said in a statement: “Mike Owen, the Chief Executive of Bury Council tendered his resignation with effect from midnight on 18 June 2017.

"Mike had been due to participate in a disciplinary process which began on Monday 19th June. As Mike was no longer an employee of the Council at this stage he did not attend and the Council could not compel him to do so.

"No payment has been made to Mr Owen on his departure except that relating to outstanding holidays. Mike has been an officer of the Council for many years and despite the circumstances of his departure, we wish him well for the future.

"The historic child protection issue which led to the review and subsequent disciplinary investigation took place before I became the Leader and I will ensure that lessons are learned by the Council and where it has fallen below the standards that the public rightly expect, improvements will be made.

"Pat Jones-Greenhalgh will continue in the role of Interim Chief Executive until the appointment of a new Chief Executive."