FIGURES for payments to a former Dorset County Council officer released by the Taxpayers Alliance has been criticised for being ‘retrospective and inaccurate’ by the current council.

The Alliance claims the highest paid employee at the former Dorset County Council in 2018-19 received an income of £278,000 – which, it claims, was the largest council salary package in the UK.

It claims the total sum paid to former Dorset Council chief executive, Debbie Ward amounted to £302,000 when a £24,000 employer’s pension contribution is added in. But Dorset Council, which took over from DCC a year ago, said in a statement: “The quote from the Tax Payers Alliance (TPA) is a retrospective and inaccurate view of the previous Dorset County Council. Consistently the TPA confuses contractual contributions to an individual’s pension (set by national legislation) and salary payments thereby inflating the numbers to create headlines.

“The figures in the article for 18/19 are incorrect. The former county council published full figures at the time, but during a global pandemic it is not something we intend to spend time responding to further.”

However figures from the Local Democracy Reporting service say the overall figures quoted by the Alliance are broadly in line with those released by the former council at the time Ms Ward left its employment. It says that the Alliance has added together her salary and redundancy payment, together with other payments in lieu of leaving before her contract ended which inflates the amount she was paid in her final year. All of the payments are an entitlement in law. The latest ‘Town Hall Rich List’, compiled by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, follows calls from the pressure group for council tax to be frozen and funds to be focused on frontline health and social care services amid the coronavirus crisis.

The list has been branded “inane and distasteful” by Solace, which represents chief executives in local government across the UK. The TPA say at least 13 employees at the former council received six-figure salaries in 2018-19 while nationally, the number of people employed by local authorities receiving more than £100,000pa, has gone up by over 10 per cent.

Dorset is currently one of the most expensive counties for council tax charges with annual payments now over £2,000 a year for even modest homes. The authority imposed an increase of just under 4% this year, the most it could without holding a referendum.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said household budgets are being squeezed further through “crushing council tax rises.”

“There are plenty of talented people in local authorities who are focused on delivering more for less, but that is needed across the board. The country needs every council to cut out waste and prioritise key services without resorting to punishing tax hikes on their residents.”

Said Solace managing director Graeme McDonald: “In recent weeks many council staff have been working all waking hours responding to the Covid-19 outbreak – they require our support and backing.

“At any time, council chief executives and their colleagues are responsible for delivering a variety of highly complex services. It is crucial councils have good quality people to deliver good quality public services.”

Figures reported in autumn 2018, provided by Dorset County Council, showed that Ms Ward received £129,914 redundancy and £40,211 in lieu of 13 weeks’ notice on her contract. She also received a contribution to her pension fund, put at a lifetime £303,650, because she was retiring early as her previous position ceased to exist.

Ms Ward joined the council in 2010 as director for adult and community services and became the council’s first female chief executive in 2012.

The new Dorset Council chief executive position went to Matt Prosser who was, at the time, leading a three council partnership in Dorset.

Figures from the council published last year showed Mr Prosser then on a basic salary of £168,300 with four executive directors each on between £122,400 and £137,700, with 11 corporate directors each paid between £86,700 and £112,200.

This gives an annual cost for the council’s senior management team of between £1.6million and £1.95m, but does not include any additional pension and other contributions, nor any pay or productivity awards which may have been made since the figures were last reported. They also do not show extra payments for work involving elections.

Dorset Council says that it has saved almost £10m a year, each year, by combining the previous councils into one and reducing job duplication, particularly at mid and senior management levels.

Although many redundancy packages from those changes have cost the taxpayer more than £100,000 the costs of redundancy are typically ‘saved’ within an 18-month period, often sooner.

In January 2019 a consultants report said there could be 240 council job losses in rural Dorset, in total, spread over two years and costing more than £5.3million in redundancy in the 2020/21 financial year alone, and up to £10m in redundancy costs over two years.

Finance brief holder at the new council, Weymouth Cllr Tony Ferrari, said at the time that it was a ‘good news story’ if job losses could be achieved earlier because it meant greater savings in the long term.