A NEW role for a council boss tasked with helping city leaders save millions of pounds has been branded a £70,000-a-year “non-job”.

City of York Council is to appoint an assistant director of transformation and change for two years, to ensure the authority balances its books by saving £24 million.

The post will be paid for by not filling another vacant assistant director role – with responsibilities including schools and children’s strategy – and will not be advertised externally.

The authority’s staffing matters and urgency committee agreed this week to begin the recruitment process for the role, which will pay between £66,068 and £73,401 a year.

Liberal Democrat leader and committee member Coun Keith Aspden opposed the new role and also the decision to only seek internal applicants.

He said: “I would question whether this job is needed and whether it will provide value for taxpayers’ money.

“At a time when front-line services are being cut, it will seem extraordinary to residents that £70,000 a year can be found for this apparent non-job. Looking at the job description, I would expect existing senior officials to already be fulfilling this sort of strategic role.”

The director’s responsibilities will include ensuring “cost-effectiveness” and “effective utilisation of resources”, and finding ways the council can generate income.

Coun Aspden said only advertising the role internally could suggest “a jobs-for-the-boys attitude”. He was concerned about it being funded by leaving another post vacant, saying: “If the council really thought this role could go, it was an opportunity to save £140,000 over two years or divert the money to services.”

Kersten England, the council’s chief executive, said 21 assistant directorships had been reduced to 12 over the last four years and three posts were currently vacant, with two being filled on an interim basis.

She said the transformation and change role “redefines the work of one of our vacant posts” and was in response to a peer review study of the way the council worked.

She said it would ensure there was “sufficient capacity” to change the way the authority operated so it could make the necessary savings.

She said: “The recruitment process for this role is in line with our workforce strategy, in providing opportunities to support and develop our staff.”