After less than three years at the helm, Lin Homer has quit as chief executive of Birmingham City Council.

Chief Reporter Paul Dale recounts how behind-the-scenes rows and political tension shaped her decision to go...

Lin Homer's brief tenure as Birmingham City Council chief executive was doomed from the moment Labour lost control of Britain's largest local authority almost a year ago.

Both halves of the incoming Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition were acutely suspicious of Mrs Homer, whom they viewed as having little interest in their vision of the city's future.

The Tories were convinced her natural sympathies lay with Labour, although as a council employee she was careful to maintain an air of absolute independence.

But the Conservatives were given further cause for concern when, a few days before the 2003 city council elections, Mrs Homer delivered what was seen as an overtly political speech to the West Midlands CBI.

Her enthusiasm for creating flourishing neighbourhoods by spreading the wealth of city centre regeneration to the suburbs contained rather more than a fleeting resemblance to Labour's election manifesto.

She argued that she had merely been communicating council policy, something that as chief executive she was paid to do.

Mike Whitby, leader of the Conservative group, who would become council leader in June 2004, disagreed. He said at the time: "Civil servants should be impartial. When they stray into political themes it reduces their impartiality."

John Hemming, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, who became deputy council leader when the coalition took control, privately made no secret of his belief that Mrs Homer was simply not the right person for the £170,000-a-year job of running the council.

He took issue with her over an apparent failure to crackdown on postal vote fraud at both the 2003 and 2004 elections and pushed through a successful election petition alleging widespread fraud by Labour candidates in the Aston ward at the 2004 contest.

An election court, which also considered similar claims in Bordesley Green, heard evidence about Mrs Homer's handling of the voting process.

Birmingham was treated to the surreal sight of the deputy council leader and the chief executive on different sides of a court room. The election commissioner, Richard Mawrey QC, cleared Mrs Homer, the returning officer, of the most serious allegations but did find fault with the way the election was run.

Ferrying completed postal votes to the count in plastic bags, contrary to election law, was "an act of the direst folly" and Mrs Homer allowed too many corners to be cut, Mr Mawrey declared.

Mrs Homer, for her part, told the court that at the chaotic election count she had been in " strategic, not operational control". Her role was confined to " motivational management and fire fighting".

Although she is the Birmingham returning officer, with overall responsibility for running elections, Mrs Homer chose to hand the task of day-to-day management to council elections officer John Owen.

The phrase "strategic, not operational control" astonished both Conservative and Lib Dem councillors who saw it as, at best, an abrogation of responsibility and, at worst, passing the buck to a colleague.

Matters went from bad to worse when, in April, more than 250 uncounted postal votes from the 2004 election were discovered by the police in a box in a locked cupboard in the council elections office.

John Hemming, who was tipped off about the box by a whistleblower, insisted that Mrs Homer suspend elections officer John Owen and another member of staff. She was reluctant to do so but Whitby and Hemming forced Mrs Homer's hand. Owen was suspended and remains so today.

The ongoing postal vote saga contributed to a steady deterioration of relations between the coalition leaders and the chief executive. There were furious rows behind the scenes, chiefly about the extent to which Whitby and Hemming, as politicians, could order council officials to change the way they did things.

There were claims that Mrs Homer failed to communicate properly with the council leader and his deputy.

The coalition leaders were frustrated at what they saw as the refusal of the council " establishment" to adapt to fresh ideas and to enthusiastically embrace Whitby's glasnost with the private sector.

Another bone of contention was Mrs Homer's refusal to move her family from Suffolk, where she had worked previously, to Birmingham. This involved the chief executive making the long journey home on Friday and not returning to Birmingham until Monday morning.

Her absence during the weekend the MG Rover crisis finally boiled over didn't impress Coun Whitby, although the pair kept in touch by telephone.

A senior council cabinet member said after hearing the news of Mrs Homer's resignation that he was not surprised.

"It is a well known fact that certain colleagues haven't been happy with Lin. There was unrest and concern," he added.

As chief executive of Suffolk County Council Mrs Homer was a rising star in local government, helping the local authority to win a record five Beacon Awards and Council of the Year in 2001.

Like many others before her, however, she found Birmingham a difficult nut to crack.

When she arrived in October 2002 she inherited failing social services and housing departments and a council condemned as "weak" by the Audit Commission. During her first two years in charge most of Lin Homer's time was taken up with pushing through major changes in senior staff in an attempt to improve the council's overall performance.

Hopes are high that, later this year, the council may at last win a single-star rating for social services and housing.

Although a personality clash with politicians appears to have prompted Mrs Homer's early departure, she remains extremely popular with most council staff.

Never grand, unlike some previous chief executives, Lin Homer made a point of seeking the views of all local authority staff and appeared genuinely interested in their opinions about how the council could be made to perform better.

She also possesses formidable contacts at Government level in London, an advantage that will now be lost to Birmingham.

Sir Albert Bore, who until June 2004 was Labour leader of the council and chaired the panel that appointed Mrs Homer, said: "She has been one of the best chief executives I have had the privilege to work alongside and, I believe, her departure will be a tremendous blow to this council and to the city. It will not be easy to replace her."

The truth of the matter is that Lin Homer probably feels she has contributed all that she can in Birmingham. Certainly, given the fractious atmosphere that has existed at times, no one would blame her for moving.

A speech about race relations Mrs Homer delivered shortly after moving to Birmingham rather neatly sums up why she might find it challenging to work with a Conservative-led council.

She related how, while travelling home to Suffolk by train, someone "plonked themselves down next to me" looking exhausted because their bag had been stolen. Mrs Homer was subjected to a 20-minute conversation about how everything that was wrong in this country was because of asylum seekers.

Even though she was tired Lin Homer set about attempting to convince the woman about the incorrectness of "such a strong and inappropriate set of views".

The first reaction of Labour politicians to such a chain of events would undoubtedly be to praise their chief executive for holding enlightened views and having the courage of her convictions.

Tories, however, might have wondered why there was no sympathy shown for the woman who had been mugged and had her bag stolen.