Pembrokeshire County Council has incurred an extra £55,400 in charges from the Welsh Audit Office due to disagreements over the former chief executive's golden goodbye and the way the authority accounts for the Cleddau Bridge.

A formal objection over the accounting for Cleddau Bridge will land the authority with a bill for £27,000 from the Welsh Audit Office (WAO) and a further £1,500 in legal costs.

The WAO's involvement in former chief executive Bryn Parry-Jones' severance pay has also cost the authority an extra £28,446.

The WAO stepped in in October last year to declare that a £330,000 golden goodbye for Mr Parry-Jones would be unlawful. The settlement was subsequently reduced by £52,760.

At last week's Corporate Governance committee councillors were told that the council's statement of accounts for 2013-14 had not yet been signed off by the WAO because of a "potential material outstanding issue".

The WAO has since confirmed that accounting for the Cleddau Bridge is the outstanding issue.

Jon Haswell, head of finance, told the committee: "We had an agreement from the Welsh Audit Office to move forward, after that was agreed they backed down. We have had another meeting and we have now agreed a way forward."

When questioned he said that this had come at a "significant" cost to the authority; a £27,000 bill from the WAO and £1,500 for legal advice.

A spokesman for the WAO said: "The issue relates to a formal objection over the accounting for Cleddau Bridge in the Pembrokeshire Council’s statement of accounts.

"We have worked closely with the Council to resolve this issue and officers are currently drafting a report for full council that will set out the way forward.

"Once this report has been presented the accounts can then be updated, we will then be in a position to provide our opinion on the accounts. Our current fee for dealing with this is stands at £27,000."

A council spokesman said that a report would be submitted to May's meeting of full council.

"Following council, the Corporate Governance committee will receive the audit opinion from the WAO and sign off the statement of accounts for 2013-14," he said.

The spokesman said that the council had not yet received an invoice from the WAO but that the sum of £27,000 was correct.