The county council spent £840,000 on four staff members who were made redundant in the last financial year, with a leading councillor describing the total as “shocking”.

New figures from the Department for Levelling Up and Communities released in June showed Oxfordshire County Council paid £1,527,000 to make 36 staff members redundant in the year to March.

Included in this large pay package were four council staff members who were paid an excessive £839,103.24 in total.

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Oxford Mail: County HallCounty Hall (Image: Ed Nix)

Conservative county councillors David Bartholomew and Liam Walker have argued this figure raises serious questions about the council’s “management of personnel” and said answers were desperately needed as to “why so many senior officers were leaving and getting significant payouts”.

A county council spokesman has emphasised that it employs a wide range of professionals across many sectors and provides 80 per cent of local government services in Oxfordshire.

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He said: “The council always seeks best value, avoids redundancy wherever possible and redeploys employees if appropriate.”

Oxford Mail: County HallCounty Hall

Mr Bartholomew said: “The average council taxpayer will be amazed that their council tax is going to fund payments in excess of £800,000 and will question why councillors approved this.”

He said the “brutal truth” was that the payments were determined by “process and law”, which is where “some reform was required”.

The councillor added: “The whole question of whether the councillors should have approved this is a farce as we are presented with a ‘fait accompli’ saying this is the situation.”

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Mr Walker said taxpayers in Oxfordshire would be “shocked” to hear that such a “vast amount” was being spent on clearing out staff and said this significant share of money could have been utilised for fixing 16,000 potholes and helping fund adult social care.

Oxford Mail: County councillor Liam WalkerCounty councillor Liam Walker

Mr Bartholomew said that when “new schemes were kicked off and highly paid individuals were brought in, greater consideration should be given to what happens if these projects don’t materialise”.

The Local Government Association said, unlike the civil service, councils have seen their workforce shrink while facing “increasing demand for services” and called for a rethink of government funding to combat “severe budget pressures”.

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The council made a total of 69 redundancies the year before, at a cost of £1,276,000.

It spent £262,000 more than in the year to 2020, when its bill for redundancies was £1,265,000.

A county council spokesman said: “There are defined rules around the calculation of redundancy payments.

“These are linked primarily to length of service and salary.

“The council will not discuss individual cases or disclose the identities of the individuals involved.

“The council seeks to avoid redundancy and instead to redeploy staff whenever possible.”

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About the author 

To sign up to Ed's weekly Politics newsletter, click here: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/newsletters/

Ed specialises in writing political stories for the Oxford Mail and The Oxford Times. 

He joined in the team in February 2023, after completing a History undergraduate degree at the University of York and studying for his NCTJ diploma in London.

Ed’s weekly politics newsletter is released every Saturday morning.