11 council chiefs who earned more than £100k on Town Hall ‘rich list’

Pressure group TaxPayers' Alliance has revealed its twelfth list following in-depth research.

The pay packets include officers' overall remuneration – which includes salaries, expenses, compensation and pension contributions.

In 2017-18, Dr Muna Abdel Aziz, the council's director of public health, received a salary of £117,781, £846 expenses and a pension contribution of £26,854 – which brought her total pay packet to £145,481.

Andy Farrall, executive director for economic regeneration, growth and environment, earned a salary of £115,297 but his total remuneration came to £142,431.

And chief executive Steven Broomhead, who is not employed on a full-time basis, got a salary of £133,640 and expenses of £846, which brought his total to £134,486.

It excludes the amounts paid to Mr Broomhead for his returning officer duties.

The 'rich list' says 13 council staff received a total of between £100,000 and £149,999 in 2017-18, with nobody on more than £150,000 – but this has been disputed by the council.

A spokesman said: "Once again, we do not recognise the TaxPayers' Alliance's figures in relation to the 13 posts on their 'rich list', following on from the 22 posts they erroneously put on this list in 2016-17, as being accurate for Warrington.

Town Hall

"Our draft statement of accounts, which is made available on the council’s web site, shows that for the 2017-18 financial year, three officers received a basic salary of £100,000 or more, with a further eight officers receiving total remuneration of £100,000 or more, when other elements – such as pension contributions – were taken into account.

"One of these posts was a joint-funded post with NHS Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group, meaning the Council paid 50 per cent of the cost of the post.

"In addition, each year we present to full council and publish a pay policy statement, which clearly sets out the pay arrangements for our senior management team."

The authority insists it continues to reduce its senior management costs year to year.

It also says the TaxPayers' Alliance uses a 'crude method' of information gathering using both statement of accounts and council pay policies, 'effectively double counting' some posts in its figures.

The council said it is only legally required to publish the names of those officers earning £150,000 or more.

However, by annual agreement with the officers named, it continues to publish the names of anyone on the strategic management team and their salary as part of the statement of accounts.

In 2017-18, the assistant director of partnerships and performance got a £25,226 salary, £160 expenses, compensation of £109,490 'for loss of office' and a pension contribution of £3,914 – which brought their total pay to £138,790.

Town Hall bosses say the compensation figure references costs incurred in relation to a senior management restructure in 2017, which has delivered an annual saving of more than £340,000 since 2017-18.

Deputy chief executive and director of corporate services Lynton Green received remuneration totalling £126,963 while he was in the role of director of finance and information services, assistant director for targeted services £115,571, assistant director transportation, engineering and operations £112,442, Warrington & Co managing director Steve Park £112,128, assistant director for integrated adult health and SCC £112,079 and assistant director customer and business transformation Gareth Hopkins £101,995.

Furthermore, Steve Peddie, who held roles as executive director of families and wellbeing and operational director for adult services during the year, received remuneration totalling £108,958.