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The former chief executive of two Somerset councils was paid more than £340,000 in redundancy in the run-up to a new local authority being formed, it has emerged.

Penny James served as chief executive of Taunton Deane Borough Council for 15 years - with five years also being spent in charge of West Somerset Council.

As the two authorities began the process to combine and create the new Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWAT), Ms James opted to take redundancy, telling the Somerset County Gazette she was "leaving the council in a really good place".

It has now emerged that Ms James was paid a redundancy package of £343,000 - including nearly £89,000 for "loss of office" and more than £30,000 in pension contributions.

A further three officers were given between £138,000 and £196,000 each upon leaving the organisation as a result of the ongoing transformation programme, which has seen nearly 200 staff leave as the way the new council provides services is streamlined and restructured.

The figures were published online in the final accounts for both Taunton Deane and West Somerset, which are made available to the public before being officially signed off.

SWAT chief executive James Hassett - who took up his position in January - said the decision about the amount of money paid to Ms James predated his appointment and were in line with agreed council policies.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon (June 4), he said: "The council had a redundancy policy, and it was followed - as far as I'm aware - in every case in terms of the redundancies which were put forward.

"It's a contractual figure that was derived as a result of the contract of employment that post-holders were under.

"It is in line with the redundancy policy, and will have been based on two figures, broadly - one will be a redundancy payment, and one will be a pension strain as a result of length of service and age of retirement."

The government is currently consulting on plans to cap the amount of redundancy pay available to public sector workers at £95,000.

Mr Hassett said the government would decide whether to act on this after the summer, adding: "You need to pay the right amount of money to get the right person."

He also clarified the £89,000 payment for "loss of office" related to Ms James leaving her position, rather than the loss of any physical space she had occupied in Deane House in Taunton, which has undergone extensive refurbishment to make it more 'open plan'.

In December 2018, councillors agreed to allocate a further £2M towards the cost of redundancies after Ms James admitted her estimates of how many people would opt for redundancy were "off-target" and "too conservative".

Ms Hassett confirmed that Ms James' level of redundancy pay had already been agreed before this additional money was allocated.

He said: "Everybody will have been in line with the policy. The policy was set well in advance of that meeting, and as far as I am aware, there wasn't a deviation away from that for anybody."

A total of 191 employees were made redundant from the council in 2018/19 - of which the majority (112) earned £20,000 a year or less.

In addition to Ms James, three other senior officers left with redundancy packages of between £138,000 and £196,000, including the deputy chief executive and the assistant director of planning and the environment.

The total bill for the redundancies was £5,611,000 - and some of the new positions created for the new council still haven't been filled.

Mr Hassett said: "I think there were around about 40-odd vacancies, maybe a bit more, in the direct labour organisation - particularly heavily in parks and open spaces. We're going through a recruitment process at the moment.

"I'm not aware of anyone who's left the organisation who's been re-employed."

When the council voted to grant the additional £2M to cover the cost of redundancies, it came with the caveat that the savings that would be achieved through transformation would increase from £3.1M to £3.5M per year.

Mr Hassett said most of these savings had already been achieved in light of the staffing changes that had taken place.

He said: "The majority of those savings were actual staff costs - and obviously the staff have gone.

"We're still on a business case of around about three years' payback for that. We just need to manage within our own particular budget going forward to maintain those savings.

"We are looking at much more commercial ways of operating. It might be that we need to bring money in as well as save it, but those savings are pretty much nailed on because people have left.

"Irrespective of any discussions around unitary authorities, for us we are financially in a good position. We are continuing to make the savings going forward, and I'm just focused on delivering the best services that I can do for this particular council and the residents of Somerset West and Taunton."

The newly-elected Liberal Democrat administration has set ambitious targets for the next four years, including the delivery of the long-dormant Firepool site and a strategy to make the district carbon-neutral by 2030.

Council leader Federica Smith-Roberts said she was confident the council had enough capacity in its staff to deliver on the promises made in her party's manifesto.

She said: "We've got staff who are ambitious to help us achieve those goals.

"They've been through a lot, but hopefully they can see where we're heading. We've got real ambitions as to the growth project and everything else."

When in opposition, Ms Smith-Roberts spoke in favour of the transformation programme but expressed disappointment at its rising cost, questioning in November 2018 about "how we tell the public this is an acceptable thing."

She confirmed on Tuesday (June 4) that a full audit of the transformation process would be undertaken by the South West Audit Partnership to see what lessons can be learned.

She said: "I have always been in support of transformation, because I think that residents need an efficient council to deliver its services, above the statutory requirements.

"When I got into this post, the challenges that faced me were far greater than what I thought they would be.

"We are hoping the auditors will report publicly on this by the end of the summer.

"However, for me it's not about the past. I have a really ambitious drive within me to make sure residents through the area have the best services. It's about looking forward."

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