Mick Gipp

IN an extraordinary twist former police chief Mick Gipp will find his new boss at a housing association to be a former police worker who once reported to him.

Debby Bunn, new MD of Roddons Housing Association

Retired Chief Supt Gipp took on a role two years ago as Safer Fenland Manager but the council announced today he has quit to join Roddons Housing Association. He is expected to take on an administration role with the association which took control of Fenland’s 3,750 council homes.

The housing association, part of Circle Anglia Group, recently appointed former town mayor and former police worker Debby Bunn to be its £75,000 a year chief executive.

Debby left school at 16 to enter a career in media and marketing. She moved into a police role, as operations manager for Cambridgeshire Police Countryside Watch, and became Mayor of March in 2005, aged 30. She joined Roddons in 2008, as head of customer care.

Chief Supt Gipp joined Fenland Council in 2010 in a role that put him at the heart of the council’s strategy on crime and safety initiatives.

His role included such things as the Crime Buster bus, and his other remit the CCTV operation. Chief Supt Gipp was also in charge of licensing at Fenland Hall, overseeing the many applications for premises licences and unravelling applications which could threaten safety if approved.

When he joined Fenland Council it was at the end of a 30 year career for the Cambridgeshire policeman who joined the force in 1980 having served as a special constable in Ely for 18 months.

On Friday the former policeman met up with his new colleagues – joining the Roddons table at the Mayor’s Ball at the Braza Club. Seventy guests enjoyed the hospitality of the mayor, Councillor Bernard Keane, and the toast to the town of March was proposed by Paul Medd, chief executive of Fenland Council.