TWENTY-SEVEN council employees across the county earned £100,000 or more last year, six more than the previous year.

Oxfordshire County Council, which had to make £64m of savings over four years from its last budget, employs some of the highest earning officials in the county.

The authority’s chief executive, Joanna Simons, is the highest paid council official in Oxfordshire taking home £217,640 including salary, pension contributions and possible bonuses – unchanged from last year.

It has also increased the number of employees who earn £100,000 or more by two from 2011/12, meaning there were 12 such officials in 2012/13.

Oxford City Council has also increas-ed its number of these employees by two – giving it six – and Cherwell District Council has done so by one – giving it four.

One city council position is disputed – the employee in question earns between £95,000 and £140,000 and the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which collated the figures, has taken the midpoint of this range – which is £117,500 – but the person could conceivably earn less than £100,000.

City council spokesman Chris Lee said the structure of senior officer pay had not changed beyond a 1.5 per cent inflationary increase applied to all staff. He said only the chief executive and the three executive directors were paid above £100,000.

In addition to the four director posts, city council monitoring officer Jeremy Thomas earns a salary of £83,236, but his pension contributions take his total remuneration to £100,408.

West Oxfordshire District Council has increased the number of employees earning £100,000 or more by one – giving it three – while South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse had a combined number of four, but following the departure of one of its directors and the decision not to replace him it now has three.

A spokesman for these councils said because they share services they contribute only 50 per cent of the employees’ wages. County council spokesman Paul Smith said many other authorities in the region pay more people higher wages and pointed out the county council provides 80 per cent of council services in Oxfordshire.

He added the council has also reduced the number of managers by around 40 per cent since 2010.

Carys Davies, spokeswoman for West Oxfordshire District Council, said two of the positions at or above £100,000 – including chief executive David Neudegg – are paid 50/50 with Cotswold District Council.

Cherwell District Council spokeswoman Jemma Callow said the cost of their chief executive is shared with South Northamptonshire Council.

TOP EARNERS

  1. Oxfordshire County Council chief executive, Joanna Simons – £217,640
  2. Oxford City Council chief executive, Peter Sloman – £168,280
  3. Oxfordshire County Council director for children, education and families, Jim Leivers – £163,582
  4. Cherwell District Council chief executive, Sue Smith – £154,419
  5. Oxfordshire County Council deputy director for children’s social care, Lucy Butler – £154,024
  6. Oxfordshire County Council’s director for environment and economy, Sue Scane, and director for social and communities services John Jackson – £152,935
  7. Oxfordshire County Council chief fire officer, David Etheridge – £146,873
  8. West Oxfordshire and Costwold District Councils joint chief executive David Neudegg – £138,911
  9. Oxford City Council director for city regeneration David Edwards – £131,619
  10. Oxford City Council director for community services Tim Sadler – £131,114
  • All figures include salary and employer pension contributions plus any bonuses
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