Council's top earners under spotlight again

The list gathers together the total remuneration of employees on the council payroll earning over £100,000 a year, which includes base salary as well as bonuses and perks such as car allowance and benefits.
According to the figures, the top four West Berkshire Council employees earning over £100,000 all saw their total remuneration package grow in the last year, and the report also shows that 12 employees took home more than the sum in the financial year 2010/11.
The chief executive of the council, Nick Carter, saw his annual remuneration rise 0.17 per cent to £158,698 - more than the Prime Minister, as did the children and young people director Margaret Goldie, whose remuneration grew to £120,556.
Environment director John Ashworth enjoyed a 0.32 per cent rise to take his total to £120,357, and the corporate director for community services, Teresa Bell, whose total pay was listed as £112,380.
Also listed are 11 “unknown” employees, three of which thought to be linked to schools, whose total remuneration for the year varied between £102,500 at the lowest and £162,500 at the highest.
The employees are thought to have left the council and the money is linked to severance packages.
In a radical reshaping of its upper management structure, West Berkshire Council terminated the contracts of a number of employees in 2010/11 and incurred liabilities of about £3.5m.
When asked to explain the numbers, a spokesman for the council, Keith Ulyatt, said: “We had only four earning over £100k as listed. We have no idea what the 11 ‘unknown titles’ mean or the accompanying figures.
“You would have to ask Taxpayers Alliance where they got them.”
The Taxpayers Alliance obtained the figures from the council’s Statement of Accounts, which also lists executive headteacher at Trinity School in Shaw and Kennet School, Thatcham, Paul Dick, whose total remuneration including pension contributions grew to £180,851
Mr Ulyatt said the council had responded to the questions in August when the Newbury Weekly News first approached it over the pay of its top earners, and no new information would be provided despite council staff being informed in February that their pay would be frozen for a third consecutive year, sparking anger from the union.