HULL City Council has paid out more than £300,000 in compensation to three senior officers who left the Guildhall, according to a new report.
The so-called "loss-of-office" payments are detailed in the latest annual Town Hall Rich List published by the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA), which monitors all £100,000-plus salaries in local government.
Covering the 2011-12 municipal year, the report shows three high-ranking officers at the city council received compensation awards for their departures from the authority.
Two of them – former head of finance Martin Fox and Building Schools for the Future (BSF) director David Martin – had their posts deleted as part of budget cuts agreed by the previous Liberal Democrat-led administration.
Mr Fox received a compensation payout of £125,863.
In the previous year, his total salary package was £110,844.
Mr Martin led the council's team overseeing the £400m BSF modernisation programme across the city's secondary schools as well as a number of primary and special schools.
His post was axed as the BSF programme began to wind down.
The TPA report shows he received a £84,336 compensation payout from the council, having previously been on an annual salary of £135,450.
The third compensation payment made during the year went to former head of legal and democratic services Susan De Val.
As revealed by the Mail at the time, she unexpectedly quit her job as the council's most senior legal officer after reportedly clashing with councillors and senior officers.
According to today's report, which was compiled from replies to Freedom of Information requests, she received a £95,537 compensation package for loss of office.
In the previous year, Mrs De Val's total annual salary package was £109,746.
The report lists Hull among 38 local councils with more than 15 employees receiving salary packages of more than £100,000 in 2011-12.
They include direct salaries, benefits in kind, expenses, bonuses, payments relating to election duties and employer's pension contributions.
During the year, the number of £100,000-plus posts in Hull increased by three compared with the previous year.
In the neighbouring East Riding, the number of £100,000-plus posts increased by one to nine.
Nicola Yates, who was chief executive in Hull at the time, was the highest paid local government officer in the region, with a total remuneration package worth £206,709.
Nigel Pearson, her opposite number at the East Riding, received £202,000 – the same as in 2010-11.
The East Riding also confirmed it did not pay any loss of office compensation awards during the year.
TaxPayers' Alliance chief executive Matthew Sinclair said the report revealed many "eye-watering" redundancy costs.
He said: "Sadly, too many local authorities are still increasing the number of highly paid staff on their payroll, some of whom are given hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation just to move from one public sector job to another."
