THE whopping pay out to its’ former chief executive Tim Pilsbury has rocketed Fenland District Council into a Town Hall ‘Rich List’ produced by lobby group The Taxpayers Alliance.

The alliance says the pay out to Mr Pilsbury puts Fenland into the “ ‘Who’s Who’ of local government fat cats detailing all those whose remuneration exceeds �100,000.”

The money paid to Mr Pilsbury to encourage him to leave Fenland Council following the departure of former leader Geoff Harper and the return of Alan Melton made him one of the highest earners for 2010-11.

Figures produced by the Taxpayers Alliance show that in 2009-10 Mr Pilsbury was paid a total of �202,580 but this rose by 97.76 the following year to �400,616 – the year he left.

For the months he worked in 2010-11 he was paid �71,252 but on top of this the council awarded him �299,148 compensation for loss of office.

What are termed “benefits in kind” added a further �18,137 and pension contributions took this up by a further �12,079.

“Mr Pilsbury took early retirement on September 1, 2010- his annualised salary at the time would have been �149,985”, said an Alliance spokesman.

The Alliance’s report shows that Sandra Claxton, his successor, was paid �141,769 in 2010-11, made up of gross pay of �117,256 and the rest in benefits in kind, pensions, etc- her annualised salary was �137,600.

The Alliance spokesman added: “Some of the entries on our list include redundancy payments pushing employees into higher remuneration brackets, but this does not wholly account for the increased number receiving remuneration packages over �100,000.”

The key findings of this research showed that there were at least 3,097 council employees who received total remuneration in excess of �100,000 in 2010-11, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year’s 2,696.

Cllr Melton says since he took over there has been a massive reduction in the corporate management team at Fenland Hall and the authority today is much leaner than before.