Council reveals salaries of top earners

West Berkshire Council has published a chart with the names and responsibilities of staff paid more than £58,200

WEST Berkshire Council has revealed the salaries of its top earners.

Following his call for councils to publish every item of spending over £500 in an effort to increase transparency, the Conservative communities secretary, Eric Pickles, has also asked councils to publish an organisational chart including the names and responsibilities of staff paid more than £58,200 - an amount equivalent to the salary of a senior civil servant.

Twenty members of staff are named on the document on West Berkshire Council's website.

The top earner is chief executive of the council, Nick Carter, who is listed as earning £133,418 per year.

Mr Carter is one of three people earning over £100,000 a year.

The other two are the director of environmental services John Ashworth, and the director of children and young people, Margaret Goldie.

The staff member who ranks lowest among the list of those earning over £58,200, earns £68,651 per year.

Mr Pickles said he wanted to “decipher the Town Hall maze of middle management”.

“The taxpayer has a right to look under the bonnet of their Town Hall and see what decisions are being made on their behalf and where their money is being spent,” he said.

Ministers believe this will give the public the full picture of a council's management composition.

The document also lays out core principles of data transparency, which ministers believe all local authorities should embrace as part of the new era of accountability.

At the end of January, every transaction over £500 spent by the council in October, November and December 2010, was listed on the expenditure page on its website, and also listed were payment details of every service the council provides, from elections to bin collections.

To see the full document on staff pay, click on the link below.