£125,000 payout to departing Telford council chief

TELFORD & WREKIN Council's departing chief executive will receive a £125,000 golden handshake after offering to quit the authority, it was revealed today.

The payout to Victor Brownlees – who earned £149,000-a-year in his role at the council – does not include any legal costs which could add on a further £10,000 to the bill.

Union chief Jonathan Sedgebeer, Telford branch secretary for Unison, said the handout was "very disturbing" at a time when the jobs of hundreds of workers at the council were under threat.

And former council leader Andrew Eade called it an "unnecessary and huge pay-off" which would take the average man on the street years to earn.

Mr Brownlees will officially leave the council at the end of the month after his request to take voluntary redundancy was approved by the council's personnel board on July 19. The decision to approve the payout was voted on at a full council meeting of the authority last night.

During the meeting it was also agreed to appoint Richard Partington, 45, as the new interim chief executive to serve in the role for the next six to nine months.

Telford & Wrekin Council leader, Councillor Kuldip Sahota, said he had full confidence in the new chief executive.

Russell Griffin, spokesman for the council, said they were unable to say what Mr Partington was being paid.

Councillor Eade today said: "I predicted that a six-figure sum would be squandered by the new Labour administration who have thrown away over £130,000 in an unnecessary and huge pay-off to the departing chief executive.

"This large amount of money would take many people in Telford & Wrekin years to earn and I doubt that the Labour administration would be so keen to spend this money like water if it belonged to them rather than to taxpayers in the borough."

Mr Sedgebeer added: "This is all at a time when our members are facing redundancy payments of £5,000 if they're lucky."

By Jason Lavan