Southend Council spent close to £300,000 on interim director

Nineteen Southend Council officers were listed in the Taxpayer’s Alliance “rich list”, published yesterday, with six officers receiving salaries of more than £120,000.

Basildon Council chief executive Scott Logan received a total of £236,688 – consisting of £199,202 of his salary and £37,486 in pension payments – while six other Basildon Council officers earned more than £120,000.

According to the Taxpayers’ Alliance list, Southend Council spent a total of £299,294 on hiring and paying the salary of an interim executive director for neighbours and environment.

Top-paid - Scott Logan from Basildon Council (Image: File photo)

This was in the top 20 highest renumeration payments made nationally in the 2022-2023 period.

Castle Point Council had six employees named on the list, with both the strategic director for corporate services and strategic director for resources receiving £120,000.

The Taxpayers Alliance rich list shows the salaries and additional payments made to top bosses at councils each year.

Southend Council insisted an “appropriate leadership” but it has reduced the size of its leadership team and reduced its reliance on agency staff.

Last November, figures published by the council showed the spend on temporary staffing in September alone was £967,000.

A Southend Council spokesman said: “We are a unitary authority responsible for delivering hundreds of services, including adult and children’s social care, education and highways, and in 2022 to 2023 managed an annual revenue budget of approximately £150 million.

“It is therefore right that we have an appropriate senior leadership structure in place and that this is also regularly reviewed.

“As part of this regular review, during 2023 to 2024 our corporate leadership team reduced from seven to six permanent employees and plans to recruit to three director roles were also stopped to make further savings.

“Although it is sometimes important and necessary to employ senior agency staff on an interim basis, we reduced our reliance on senior agency staff during 2023/24 and made permanent appointments, and agency costs will continue to be driven down across the organisation as part of our ongoing response to the financial challenges we face.”