Somerset council workers in £5m redundancy pay out

County Hall in Taunton will remain the council's main offices

More than £5m of taxpayers' money is being spent making 29 senior council managers redundant in Somerset, it has emerged.

They worked at the four district councils and the county council, which were combined into one Somerset Council last month.

The leader of the new authority, Bill Revans, said removing the roles will save £2.6m a year, so the redundancy bill of £5.2m will be "paid back" in two years.

The 29 people being made redundant include the former chief executives of Mendip, Sedgemoor and Somerset West and Taunton district councils.

Duncan Sharkey has joined Somerset Council as chief executive

A key part of the argument for moving to one council for Somerset, instead of five, was to reduce duplication in senior management roles, for example by having one chief executive instead of five.

A council report outlining the redundancies said the original business plan for moving to a unitary authority council projected £18.m annual savings, of which £2.8m was to come from senior management posts being removed.

The former Sedgemoor chief executive has the highest redundancy package of the twenty nine people, at £543,000, including pension contributions.

The new Somerset Council appointed Duncan Sharkey as chief executive, who was previously at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council.

The redundancy packages will be voted on by councillors next Wednesday.