PEMBROKESHIRE County Council will appoint a head of transformation on a salary of nearly £100,000 in order to make budget savings for the next two years.

After a heated debate, Councillors voted last Thursday to appoint a chief officer who will help achieve the savings outlined in the authority’s medium-term financial plan – however this may be an internal appointment, costing the authority less.

The two-year post will range between £82,311 and £99,945 a year. Councillors pointed out that with the addition of a company car and pension the actual salary will be much higher.

Council leader Jamie Adams said that chief officers within the authority were currently going “above and beyond the call of duty” in trying to balance the books and an additional position needed to be created.

“There is no question I believe in the minds of members of the enormity of the task that we have in terms of balancing the budget of this authority,” he said.

However, Cllr Tessa Hodgson, who had argued against the appointment during senior staff committee, said that the senior officers currently in place were best placed to make budget decisions for their departments.

“People in Pembrokeshire will find it very difficult to understand why, in the face of deep budget cuts, the best this authority can come up with is to appoint yet another highly paid manager, when they are facing cuts to their front line services cuts which affect the most vulnerable in our communities,” she said.

Cllr Myles Pepper supported the appointment and said that external consultants doing the same job would cost considerably more.

He referred to an email sent by chief executive, Ian Westley, the day before full council which said that the post would be advertised because of the salary but suggested a way forward should it continue to be undertaken by head of planning, David Fitzsimon, in which case it would cost the authority less money.

Mr Westley confirmed that this was one possible course of action saying: “At this moment in time we are not talking about an extra role, we are not talking about an extra £100,000 we are talking about relocating an existing member of staff from his day job, although he has agreed to keep oversight of certain elements of that, to focus his attention on helping us to transform the entire organisation.”

He added that the council would not be open to legal challenge from failed applicants by disclosing this fact, as there was no guarantee that an existing member of staff would apply for the job.

He said that the last few years had tested every member of the authority’s staff to the limit and that in his opinion the creation of the post was essential.

A “clear majority” of councillors voted to authorise recruitment of a head of transformation, as well as a deputy chief education officer. The salary band of the head of transformation will be referred back to senior staff committee.