THE top four executives at City of York Council together cost the city more than half a million pounds, official figures show.

The four most senior staff members at the local authority - including the chief executive Mary Weastell - each earn more than £100,000 a year, and once pension contributions and “market supplements” are taken into account their wage bill reaches £547,383.

The chief executive has the highest salary at £131,300 in 2017/18; while her deputy; the corporate director of children, education and communities; and the corporate director of health, housing and adult social care each earn a basic wage of £103,794.

 

York Press:

All four have employer’s contributions of more than £20,000 a year.

Yesterday the TaxPayers Alliance(TPA) released its Town Hall Rich List, which details the highest paid council executives in the country.

Based on figure from 2015/16, that data shows that City of York has cut the number of £100,000 posts by one in the last two years.

However the TPA report also shows Yorkshire’s highest paid council executive came from Hambleton District Council. Former chief executive Phil Morton was paid almost £400,000 in 2015/16. The district council, which covers Thirsk, Northallerton, Easingwold and the rural areas in between, paid him £397,000 in 2015/16 before he took voluntary redundancy in February 2016.

He earned more than Richard Flinton, the chief executive of North Yorkshire County Council, who was on £193,105.

A Hambleton spokesman said: “In 2015/16 Hambleton District Council’s chief executive retired upon taking voluntary redundancy – the payment was made in line with council’s corporate policy and as part of a management restructure, which deleted the post of deputy chief executive resulting in significant savings.”

He was succeeded his deputy Dr Justin Ives, and recent Hambleton council figures show the current chief executive earns £115,370 a year, and is now the council’s only employee earning more than £100,000.

The same TPA report shows that in 2015/16, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council had eight employees earning more than £100,000 a year- three fewer than in the previous year. North Yorkshire County Council had nine employees on a salary of more than £100,000 - a reduction of one on the previous year - and Ryedale, Scarborough and Selby district councils each paid just one employee each more than £100,000. The TPA’s overall figures showed the number of council staff earning more than £100,000 across Yorkshire fell from 127 in 2014/15 to 121 the following year.