Few senior figures in local government have left such a legacy as Sir Les Elton, the former chief executive of Gateshead council, who has died aged 67 after suffering from cancer. From the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art to the Sage concert hall and music centre, from the Gateshead Millennium Bridge to the towering Angel of the North, he played a significant part in putting an ordinary northern borough on to the national and international stage.
Under Elton the varied borough of 200,000 people, embracing gritty inner-city, pleasant suburbia and rolling countryside, became a national brand for excellence. Not only was its local education system first class, but its social care, housing, parks, and award-winning gardening department, besides much else, combined in performance leagues to give the council consistently top ratings.
For Elton, transforming parts of a borough scarred with the remnants of heavy industry went hand in glove with good service delivery. Gifted with intellectual rigour, he formed a formidable partnership with the down-to-earth council leader George Gill, a former colliery electrician who shared his determination to stand up for the council's vision. When Antony Gormley's Angel of the North – then the country's largest sculpture – was erected in 1998 it attracted hostility from the tabloid press and prompted a 5,000-signature petition in protest. But Elton was determined that the council – which spent little of its own money on the project – should hold its nerve. By 2001 the Angel was named by the BBC as one of the classic designs of the 20th century.
Other bold, high-profile projects followed: the Baltic Centre, housed in an old riverside flour mill; Sage Gateshead, an international concert hall and regional music centre; and, to mark the new century, the tilting Gateshead Millennium Bridge, awarded the 2002 Stirling prize for architecture. In the estimation of Mick Henry, the current leader of Gateshead council, Elton "helped to bring the world to Gateshead's door".
The son of Harry and Marjorie, Elton was born in Southampton, but the family soon moved north to accommodate his father's work as a water engineer. Les briefly began grammar school in Widnes – an association that made him a lifelong rugby league fan – before moving to Oldham Hulme grammar school when his father joined the old West Pennine Water Board.
He read law at the University of Manchester and, on graduating, joined Salford city council as an articled clerk, eventually becoming an assistant solicitor. Moves to councils in Nottingham and Stockport followed, and in 1977 he arrived at Newcastle city council, rising through the ranks to become director of policy services – a post that combined legal and administrative skills with political acumen. By 1984 he had crossed the River Tyne to become chief executive of Gateshead, reportedly telling councillors: "I can't make you the most famous local authority, but I can try to make you the best." He stayed for 20 years.
On retirement from the council in 2004, Elton was knighted and became chairman of Northumbria University's governing body, of Northern Film and Media, and of the board of Port of Tyne.
He is survived by his wife, Christine, whom he married in 1969, his mother, his two children, Caroline and Ben, and two grandchildren.
• Leslie Norman Elton, local authority chief executive, born 27 February 1947; died 12 July 2014
