Town Hall rich list published

Date published: 31/03/2008

Research published by the Taxpayers' Alliance reveals the fact that Rochdale Council's five-strong Executive Leadership Team cost a total of £582,366 in salaries and expenses during 2006/7.

The response from Rochdale Council lists the Executive Leadership Team's salaries, excluding expenses, as:

Roger Ellis, Chief Executive: £133,835
Terry Piggott, Executive Director (Education); £114,350
Margaret Carney, Executive Director (Resources): £114,350
Andy Zuntz, Executive Director (Community Services): £103,460
John Patterson, Executive Director (Environment): £103,460.

The three for which comparable information for 2005/6 is available show salary increases of 3.1% (Terry Piggott), 3.4% (Roger Ellis) and 8.7% (Margaret Carney).

The team is jointly responsible for an annual spend on local services approaching £300m, details of which are available on the Council's web site (latest figures are for 2005/6).

The Town Hall Rich List includes the remuneration packages of the 818 senior council staff throughout the 450 or so local authorities that were paid more than £100,000 a year in 2006/7. Unlike many private and pubic sector bodies, councils do not reveal executive pay public in their annual accounts; the Rich List information has been secured through Freedom of Information requests to every local authority.

Nationally, the research shows that there were six Chief Executives paid in excess of £200,000 for 2006/7, 14 paid more than the Prime Minister's £188,849 and 88 paid over £150,000.