York Council paid former boss £117,000 more than needed

Mary Weastell left her position as council chief executive in March 2020

A severance payment to a former council boss was not properly approved and "arguably unlawful", a report says.

Auditors said the redundancy settlement was part of £117,000 paid unnecessarily to ex-City of York Council chief executive Mary Weastell.

The report by Mazars suggests the authority wanted to avoid defending a tribunal claim which Ms Weastell dropped after the payout was agreed.

The council said the payments were contractual obligations.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mazars said in its Public Interest Report that the council paid out £24,884 in redundancy and a £65,779 ex gratia payment, effectively a gift, neither of which were required.

They said the council also paid Ms Weastell a full salary of £138,135 for 11 months and 16 days while she was off sick, but that it should have been reduced to half pay after six months, saving the authority a further £27,165.

The council said its payments to Ms Weastell, who left her job in March 2020, were contractual entitlements.

Auditors have voiced concerns about payments made to a former City of York Council chief executive

The auditors said they had "seen no evidence that a redundancy payment was necessary or that the chief executive role was deleted at the time of the payment".

"A local authority should not enter a settlement agreement simply to avoid embarrassment to the authority or individual elected members, or the cost of defending proceedings," the auditors said.

"The amount paid has not been properly approved and is arguably an unlawful payment. The facts suggest to us that this was not a genuine efficiency of business situation but involved the settlement of threatened claims."

Council leader Keith Aspden and the City of York Council have denied Ms Weastell's claims of "bullying and victimisation".

Mr Aspden said Ms Weastell's departure was part of "savings in senior management costs".

"By deleting the chief executive post and a director post, along with other senior management roles, this administration has saved taxpayers more than £200,000, every year, moving forward," he said.