THE head of Essex’s cash-strapped fire service enjoyed an effective £8,000 pay rise last year – even though he spent nine months on long term sick leave.

The Echo can reveal Chief Fire Officer David Johnson – who was finally suspended from his post in April – was paid a total of £224,954 in the 12 months to March 2015.

Months after Mr Johnson was been formally suspended, he is still getting paid.

A l m o s t all the extra money was paid in car and mileage allowances, even though he wasn’t working.

The revelation came in the week an independent report labelling the service’ culture “corrosive and toxic”.

Union leaders have criticised the news as “a sad indictment” of the way the service was run.

Alan Chinn-Shaw, Essex Fire Brigades Union branch secretary, said: “If the service had acted quicker and done an investigation in January, it could have saved taxpayers a large amount of money.”

The fire service has refused to say why Mr Johnson was off sick , why he was suspended, or why he was allowed to remain so long on sick leave.

The Echo has been told informally Mr Johnson tried to return to work in January 2015, only to be ordered home again on “gardening leave” until his suspension.

It meant the service is still paying two chief executives.

His deputy, Adam Eckley, has been “acting up” since June 2014, on a package which amounted to £194,929 for the year w h i c h ended in March.

Ministers have told the fire service it must save £15million – a fifth of its budget –by 2020 and has imposed a recruitment freeze on frontline firefighters.

Mr Johnson, who headed the service from 2005, is thought to have tried to return to work a second time in April, at which point he was suspended.

Mr Chinn-Shaw added: “Since he has been off, industrial relations have got worse and are now at an all-time-low.

“Whether that would have happened anyway, or it was down to the new management, it is difficult to say.”

An Essex Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “We operate an occupational sick pay scheme, in accordance with national terms and conditions of employment.

“For obvious reasons, we would not reveal the details around any individual’s circumstances.

“It is important to note when an employee is suspended, this counts as a neutral act and therefore employees are suspended on full pay, pending the outcome of any investigation."