The town clerk of Marlborough, Liam Costello, has announced he is leaving in December to join a market town council nearer his home in Northamptonshire.

It will mean the town council having to advertise for a new town clerk for the third time in five years because Mr Costello’s predecessor Pam Dobson, parted company with the council in disgrace after being in office for almost three years.

Mr Costello, 54, lives in Wootton near Northampton and has had an 80mile each way commute to his office in Marlborough every day since he joined the town council in September 2009.

The father-of-two said his decision to leave was purely because of the distance involved in travelling to Marlborough and he said he had not been considering leaving until he was made aware that Olney Town Council, just 12 miles from his home, was advertising for a town clerk.

“It was an opportunity I could not pass up,” he said.

In an official statement issued by the council Mr Costello said: “It is with a heavy heart that I leave Marlborough behind, but I shall take many fond memories with me of my time here, and of the people that I have met, both within the council and the community at large.

“Marlborough is a fantastic town with a proud history and cultural heritage. I shall look on with interest at the exciting times that lie ahead for Marlborough”

Town Mayor Alexander Kirk-Wilson said: ”With great regret Marlborough Town Council announces that its town clerk, Liam Costello, will be leaving to take up the post of Town Clerk in Olney, a market town of similar size to Marlborough but some 20 minutes drive from his family home in Northampton.

“Mr Costello took over as Marlborough’s town clerk in September 2009 at a challenging time, the previous town clerk having left in difficult and acrimonious circumstances.

“His knowledge and professionalism, as well as his cheerful good nature, was crucial to restoring normality to the council and he will be sorely missed.”

As Marlborough Town Council’s chief executive and financial officer Mr Costello has had the difficult task of working with dissenting factions and, on occasions, open hostility between members.

However he stressed to the Gazette that his only reason for leaving was the opportunity to work in another market town, very similar to Marlborough’s but closer to his home.

In April last year Mr Costello made a stand against sleaze in central government by standing as a general election candidate in Northants for the Scrap Members’ Allowances party in the wake of the MPs expenses scandal but only gained a handful of votes.

He was unsuccessful last year when he tried to seek election as an independent to Northampton Borough Council but he was successfully elected onto his own local Wootton and East Hunsby Parish Council.

He succeeded Pam Dobson at Marlborough Town Council who resigned after the Gazette revealed she was £6,000 in arrears on the rent she paid for her council owned home.

Mrs Dobson, who came to Marlborough from Filey on the Yorkshire coast and returned up north to become town clerk at Whitby, subsequently took Marlborough town council to an industrial tribunal claiming unfair dismissal but lost her case.