The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
The top earners at local councils have been revealed with 14 people at Lincolnshire County Council and five working with South Holland District Council earning over £100,000 a year.
The Tax Payers Alliance group has published a list of every role that received above that figure, writes Local Democracy Reporter Ellis Karran.
Collectively, all of Lincolnshire’s chief executives earned a combined salary of £859,872, with Lincolnshire County Council chief executive Debbie Barnes leading the way.
She earned a base salary of £191,808 in 2022/23, with pension contributions of £33,566 bringing the overall remuneration total to £225,374, over £30,000 more than any other council officer in Lincolnshire.
The local authority with the most officers to earn over £100,000 is Lincolnshire County Council, with as many as 14 officers surpassing the six-figure threshold, the most of any council in the entire East Midlands region.
In fact, the county council holds seven of the top ten paid positions in the county’s local authority sector.
Ms Barnes defended her pay by saying Lincolnshire had one of the lowest tax rates in the country, and said residents got good value for money with council bosses being in charge of large staff bases and multi-million pound departments.
She said: “We have a relatively small senior management team for an organisation of our size, and the number of managers has been significantly reduced over the last decade.
“To attract and retain people with the necessary skills and experience, we have to pay a competitive salary.”
Other notable inclusions on the list are Lincolnshire’s director for public health Derek Ward, who earns £139,273 annually with a £20,027 pension contribution last year, and the chief fire officer Mark Baxter, who earns £124,574 with a £35,112 pension.
Neither South Holland District Council nor East Lindsey District Council presented accounts for 2024, following the introduction of a group model adopted by the two authorities and Boston Borough Council, known as the South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership.
It has seen cost burdens from paying high earners cut dramatically, with the joint chief executive Robert Barlow having a salary of £142,887 last year and earning £167,433 in total. It is the only chief executive role in the partnership to be listed in the 2024 Town Hall list.
Collectively, the three councils have five officers earning over £100,000, which is the same as South Kesteven District Council alone, and nine fewer than the county council itself.
The other four are the partnership’s deputy chief executives including for corporate development and Section 151 for which Christine Marshall’s basic salary is £126,610 and for communities for which John Leach receives £109,974.
The deputy chief executive for growth earns £108.051, though according to the partnership’s website that position is currently vacant.
The Tax Payers Alliance list also includes its deputy chief executive for programme delivery and Senior Information Risk Officer receives £108,415, but the role is shared between Adrian Sibley and Andy Fisher.
All four executive directors also earned between £18,434 and £20,585 in pensions.
The partnership says it has identified some £24 million in savings since its formation, not least from the merging of senior management teams.
