THE top official overseeing York’s Local Plan process has had her contract extended by City of York Council – to its new leader’s surprise.

Sarah Tanburn, the £700-a-day interim director of City and Environmental Services, was appointed in early summer last year to fill the post vacated by Darren Richardson until a permanent replacement could be found.

The council said then she would stay in post for about a year to shepherd the controversial Local Plan through the planning process.

It has now emerged that, with the Local Plan process still ongoing, Labour’s former council leader Dafydd Williams agreed in March to the extension of her appointment beyond the expiry of her contract in early May.

The council’s new Conservative leader, Chris Steward, said he had had no idea her contract was going to be extended until earlier this week, and he had believed it was going to be terminated at the time of the council elections.

“It would have been good practice to have been informed at one of our regular group leaders’ meetings,” he said.

But Cllr Williams said contracts for interim directors were awarded by the chief executive and not the leader of the council.

“I was informed of the decision of a very minor extension to Sarah Tanburn’s contract but did not take the decision myself,” he said. “As it’s not my decision, it is also not my responsibility to inform other party leaders.”

Independent Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters, who revealed the extension, said that the extra money which would now be paid out to Ms Tanburn could have been sufficient to pay the annual wages of an ordinary employee. It emerged last year that the council’s payments were being made to Sarah Tanburn Associates Ltd – understood to be a limited company – on receipt of an invoice, rather than directly to Ms Tanburn.

A council spokeswoman said then that Sarah Tanburn’s day rate was £700, working four days per week and for 45 weeks per year.

That equated to £126,000, adding that there were no employer costs for tax, NI, pension or sick pay, and she would only be paid for days that she worked.

A spokeswoman said on Friday that her pay was within the budget for a director role, as the authority had repeatedly made clear in the past, and said the council had never stated when Ms Tanburn would be leaving the organisation.

Cllr Steward became leader last week, after forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.