THE senior planning officer has resigned from City of York Council after working for only two weeks.

Rod Lugg, 49, resigned as assistant director for personal reasons.

He has returned to his previous job as an architect at Durham County Council.

He said: "When I started I realised the job wasn't for me. In Durham, I had been doing a lot of regeneration work, and I discovered that I just wasn't so interested in the sort of work I had in York.

"I had also been in Durham for 14 years, and I hadn't realised how important the place was to me. I missed it quite a lot. I missed my friends, my colleagues and, although York is a lovely place, my quality of life wasn't the same."

Roy Templeman, City of York Council's director of environment and development services, said: "He left the city after working here for two weeks for personal reasons and we wish him well.

"He is an exceptionally nice man."

He said the council will be recruiting somebody else for the position soon, but interim arrangements were in place while the post was vacant.

Updated: 11:18 Thursday, November 01, 2001