Dismay at £250,000 council pay-off for chief executive in mystery exit

Nicola Yates, former chief executive of Hull Council, received a pay-off of £242,677 when she left the £160,000-a-year post in 2012.

The authority’s accounts show that when pension contributions and other payments are added, her total remuneration for 2012/13 was nearly £300,000.

Ms Yates’s departure, announced in a brief statement just over a day before her exit in July 2012, has never been fully explained but sources suggested it followed a breakdown in relations with the council’s Labour leadership.

Ms Yates, who took the role in 2009, now works in a similar capacity as city director of Bristol Council but was away on annual leave and not available for comment last night.

Hull Council said in a statement: “The individual concerned is no longer an employee of Hull City Council and it is therefore not appropriate to comment on this matter.”

The authority, which has yet to find a permanent replacement for Ms Yates, has to cut £48m from its budget over the next two years.

The council’s cabinet announced yesterday it was hoping to set up a not-for-profit company to run Ennerdale Leisure Centre, which is currently costing £220,000 a year.

Andrew Allison, spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “And there we were last week at the city council discussing how to save Ennerdale swimming pool, and they said ‘It’s not our fault, it’s the nasty coalition Government’.

“That would have paid for Ennerdale twice over.”

He added: “I think tax payers will be disgusted and we still don’t know why she was removed in the first place.”