Brighton and Hove City Council wanted to benefit from a link-up with Adelaide, plundering the southern Australian city for ideas in revamping the Brighton Centre.

Council chief executive David Panter was impressed by the success of a £28 million expansion of the Adelaide Convention Centre in recent years.

Instead, though, Adelaide has helped itself to one of Brighton and Hove's most important assets - Mr Panter himself.

He stunned council colleagues yesterday by announcing he was quitting his £145,000-a-year post to take up a health service job in Australia.

He hopes to start as chief executive of the Central Northern Adelaide Health Service in mid-October, after a move plotted in intense secrecy and with several moments of doubt along the way.

Mr Panter spent last week in Adelaide, touring the state and speaking with potential future colleagues, but insists he agonised over whether to take the job.

It was only when he was formally offered the post on Friday last week that he decided to transplant his life from one South Coast resort to another, 10,000 miles away.

The council had earmarked the Adelaide Convention Centre as an ideal model for the Brighton Centre, which is due to be demolished and replaced over the next few years.

But Mr Panter's own move to Adelaide was coincidental.

He was headhunted by the newly-formed CNAHS, having held several health administration posts in London before moving to Brighton.

Yet 42-year-old Mr Panter saw several strong similarities between Brighton and Adelaide to ultimately persuade him to move Down Under, where his brother and family live.

Mr Panter, who lives in the North Laine, said: "I've been thinking about possibly moving to Australia for some time. I've got family there and I like the country and lifestyle.

"This particular job just happened to come my way because the state of Southern Australia is going through a fairly major refurbishment of its health services, very much like the modernisation of the NHS here in the UK.

"In terms of a professional challenge, there's a huge amount there that appeals to me, while Adelaide is also an incredibly beautiful city - not dissimilar to Brighton and Hove.

"While we have the sea to one side and the Downs to the other, Adelaide is surrounded by the sea and the lovely Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley.

"I'd been looking at their convention centre as one of the possible models of redeveloping our Brighton Centre. It's one of the top five in the world.

"Just like Brighton and Hove, Adelaide has a major arts festival.

"The weather is slightly better, though. When I was there last week it was still the middle of winter out there - yet the temperature was in the upper-70s. I'm on the lookout for a barbecue."

Mr Panter is also famed for his love of the "good life" - as shown last September when The Argus revealed he spent £5,000 of public money on wining and dining in 12 months.

A clampdown on senior officers' use of corporate credit cards followed the revelations of how Mr Panter treated contacts to lavish lunches of pig's trotters, roast partridge, wood pigeon and foie gras.

But he is looking forward to indulging his gourmet tastes in his new adopted home.

He said: "Adelaide is known as the fine wine and dining capital of Australia.

"Brighton and Hove set some high standards for me to look for in Adelaide as my new potential home.

"I wanted to make sure there were some common features.

"There's that combination of the sea and the countryside, very much a cafe culture with good restaurants, bars and cafes."

Mr Panter also promised a fresh approach from day one, taking personal responsibility for struggling services such as the refuse collection department he brought back under council control.

He said: "I think the council has moved forward enormously over the last three years.

"When I arrived there were huge projected deficits but we've managed to live within the money we've got now and break even.

"I know there have also been council tax increases but those have been minimised. Getting the money sorted has been very important.

"On the service side, one of my earliest pieces of advice to the council was to bring the waste collection service in-house, with the creation of Cityclean.

"I do think the Cityclean service has improved over the last three years in terms of refuse collection.

"And introducing things like the communal bins in the centre of the city has really started to help clean up Brighton and Hove. There is still a long way to go but it's moving in the right direction."

He also believes the council is now working much more closely and effectively with other agencies, such as the police and the NHS.

Mr Panter, whose partner will join him in Australia after a few months, was delighted last month's Pride festival would be one of his abiding memories of Brighton.

The council awarded the organisers £27,000 this year towards the cost and an estimated 100,000 visitors made it the biggest Brighton Pride festival yet.

Mr Panter said: "It was great to see the Pavilion turned pink and the rainbow flag flying on council buildings. It made me very proud to be associated with a city that could hold that sort of event."

Another highlight was Fatboy Slim's infamous beach concert in July 2002, which attracted many thousands more than expected - and left a clean-up operation which lasted for weeks.

Mr Panter, who attended the free gig, said: "With hindsight we might have planned that slightly differently. We were caught on the backfoot but the night itself was a huge success and everyone pulled together.

"That's one of the things I shall miss about the city - that ability to do lots of outdoor events of one sort or another."

In contrast, he regretted the decline of the West Pier and wonders whether the council could have done more, sooner, before the devastation wreaked by the weather and arsonists.

Mr Panter justified the secrecy in which his move was cloaked by explaining he was unsure, right up until the end of last week, whether he would actually be quitting.

Only council leader Ken Bodfish knew of his possible departure.

Mr Panter said: "The last few weeks have been quite difficult. Until last week I'd had various interviews at this end with the recruitment agency people and a video link interview with my new employers.

"But until I actually went out there I didn't know what it was going to be like in reality.

"Until I was actually offered the job I didn't know whether I would take it - whether Adelaide would pass the test and whether there were people there I could work with."

He described visiting one of his new organisation's health projects in an Aboriginal settlement as the experience that convinced him to accept the Australian job.

He said: "The average life expectancy there was about 50, 20 years less than for other people.

"There are horrendous health issues that need to be addressed - but a lot of good work going on, which I wanted to be a part of.

Mr Panter does not yet have an official leaving-date, from when his deputy Alan McCarthy will become acting chief executive.

He said: "The next few weeks are going to be hectic. A few things need to be sorted in the council before I go, so I hand over to my successor with things in good working order.

"I also have all my personal stuff to arrange, but I hope to be out there by mid-October.

"I'm very grateful to have had the privilege of working on behalf of Brighton and Hove for the last three years.

"I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the city from the other side of the world, as I think the plans are in place for it to be a truly great European city over the next few years.

"Lots of things are coming on stream - the Gehry buildings, development at Brighton Marina and the new Brighton Centre, for example.

"I'm pleased I've been a small part of getting those projects up and running and I'll be watching fondly to see them come to fruition."