Four senior West Dunbartonshire Council officials received six-figure salaries last year, reveals a new ‘town hall rich list’.
The Taxpayers Alliance has published the salaries of top earners across the UK, which includes the pay of a total of 11 senior officers from the local authority.
Four of them picked up salaries over £100,000, with the other seven employees receiving pay packets of over £88,000 a year.
Pension contributions took them past the £100k mark.
Chief Executive Joyce White, who is leaving the council this summer, took home the highest salary of £132,585.
Her pension contributions of £25,667 topped this up to £159,065.
West Dunbartonshire Council’s strategic director of regeneration, environment and growth, and chief officer of supply, distribution and property, both earned £115,158.
An undisclosed senior officer earned £117,500.
A council spokeswoman pointed out that Ms White’s salary is in line with other chief executives’ in Scotland.
She said: “Like all other authorities, the salary of our Chief Executive is set nationally, with the remuneration linked to the size of population.
“The Chief Executive is responsible for leading and managing hundreds of services including education, social work and housing as well as 6,000 employees and a revenue budget of more than £200m and multi million pound capital investments to deliver regeneration and economic development in the West Dunbartonshire area.
“The council continues to reduce the number of senior managers in the organisation and year on year, generating ongoing savings.”
According to the UK-wide Taxpayers Alliance figures, the number of council staff earning more than £100,000 is at its highest in almost a decade.
Some 2,921 town hall chiefs were paid six-figure sums in 2020-21, up by 119 on the previous year and the highest since 2013.
Across the UK and despite the pandemic, the number of council staff receiving more than £100,000 had increased by 119 to at least 2,921 people, the most since 2013-14.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These figures will allow residents to judge town hall bosses for themselves and hold their local councils to account.”
