Rewards rise for town hall chiefs as lower pay frozen

Research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) revealed the total remuneration of Craven Council chief executive Paul Shevlin rose by 5.35 per cent in the last financial year to almost £125,000, while at Barnsley Council the return for the post, currently held by acting chief executive Steve Pick, rose by 3.73 per cent to £167,000, also above the inflation rate of 3.4 per cent.

The highest pay out in 2010/11 in Yorkshire and the Humber for a council boss was the £327,466 awarded to the outgoing North Lincolnshire Council director of transition and development, whose £23,537 salary was boosted by a pensions contribution of £256,166, and compensation of £47,763. The chief executives of Bradford, Doncaster, East Riding, Hull, Sheffield and Wakefield councils all received packages worth more than £200,000.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TPA, said: “Taxpayers will be astonished that so many council employees are still getting such a generous deal while everyone else in the public sector is facing a pay freeze.

“The Town Hall Rich List shows that while councils insist cuts can only mean pressure on frontline services, some clearly have cash in the bank when it comes to paying their own senior staff.”

Heather Wakefield, head of local government at Unison, the UK’s biggest public sector union, said councils needed to pay the going rate for senior officers, but it was “deeply unfair” for low paid workers to be hit with pay freezes while salaries at the top rose.

Craven Council said Mr Shevlin’s pay included a performance-related bonus of £5,000 that he earned the previous year, although he gave £500 of this to a staff well-being fund.