THE REDUNDANCY package for the departing chief executive at Cheshire County Council will cost the taxpayer £288,000.
Jeremy Taylor’s total severance deal is unclear as the figure released does not include any pension contributions.
Macclesfield chief executive Vivienne Horton’s overall package is worth £450,000.
A CCC spokesman said: "The cost to the taxpayer is 288K. That is the severance package agreed. We haven’t given any details of his statutory pension entitlement."
He declined to comment on the similarity to redundancy deals agreed for other Cheshire local authority bosses, adding that Mr Taylor’s deal was nothing to do with other chief executives.
As reported in the Express a fortnight ago, borough chief Ms Horton’s overall redundancy deal includes a full pension at 52 and £160,000 in upfront salary payments.
At the time, MBC leader Frank Keegan said this had been consistent with the deals for the other six council bosses in Cheshire. But CCC refused to confirm whether or not Mr Taylor had received the same six months pay in lieu of notice.
Peter Bounds from the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives (ALACE), the union which represented the chief executives in redundancy negotiations, said: "The arrangements are fully in accordance with the statutory rules that apply when chief executives and other officers become redundant, as several do in Cheshire and other counties as a consequence of reorganisation.
"The costs were a predictable (and presumably a predicted) part of the overall costs of reoganisation."
Cambridge educated Mr Taylor, 61, has led CCC since 2002 and disagreed with the decision to split the county into Cheshire East and Cheshire West on April 1.
He said: "I remain intensely proud of our long record of achievement on behalf of the people of Cheshire. We leave a legacy of a customer-friendly, responsive, open and accountable organisation with a fine record of strong financial management, which has certainly benefited our council taxpayers year after year."
