Outgoing chief executive Martin Whiteley picked up nearly £100,000 ‘compensation’ when he suddenly quit his job at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Additionally I can reveal today that authority bosses allowed his quoted £150,000 a salary to be misrepresented – he was actually being paid £182,088 a year when he quit.

Mr Whiteley also enjoyed an extra £15,000 a year that the authority described today as being “an accommodation allowance”.

On his departure he was paid £94,500 “which included sums relating to contractual notice and compensation of loss of office”.

A glimpse into the pay and perks enjoyed by Mr Whiteley are contained in a response to a Freedom of Information request.

Many of the issues I invited the combined authority to consider have been denied, with Patrick Arron, the interim monitoring officer, insisting the information is exempt from disclosure.

“This is because the information constitutes personal data” he told me, quoting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which now covers personal information.

However Mr Arron was able to confirm that “the salary paid to Mr Whiteley was £182,088 at the time his employment came to an end.

“His salary was originally £150,685 but acting up allowance was agreed on assuming the additional chief executive responsibilities of the LEP (local enterprise partnership) in February 2018.

“Expenses and travel were claimed through the usual processes as and when incurred in accordance with the authority’s processes but no mileage expenses were payable upon receipt of the acting up allowance.

“Mr Whiteley was also paid an accommodation allowance of £15,000 per annum.”

The combined authority says his employment was “ended with resignation by mutual agreement on September 30 2018 based on the terms of a settlement agreement and as such all matters relating to notice were dealt with by that agreement.” The chief executive left immediately.

Mr Arron said: “There were no continued payments in lieu of notice; all matters were dealt with by the settlement agreement.” He noted that Mr Whiteley was due two pays accrued holiday “but untaken holiday pay”.

In relation to compensation for loss of office, Mr Arron said: “Whilst the authority maintains an exemption under section 40 (personal information) in relation to the agreement itself, we can confirm that Mr Whiteley was paid the sum of £94,500.”

This included “sums relating to contractual notice and compensation for loss of office. The payment was subject to deductions for PAYE and NI”.

In his final sentence Mr Arron, when asked who was present at a meeting when the chief executive quit, he replied: “There was no meeting to agree that the chief executive should leave the authority.”