TAXPAYERS are paying more than half a million pounds each year in settlement payments to ex-council bosses, figures obtained by the Oxford Mail show.

Council managers were paid the cash as part of compromise and settlement agreements, often redundancy, totalling at least £1.9m since 2004.

Compromise agreements can bar ex-employees taking action for future claims and require them not to reveal details of the settlements.

On average, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council and four district councils paid out £592,361 each year.

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The biggest payment in the last 10 years was £110,000 given to former strategic director for environment at West Oxfordshire District Council, Cath James, in 2011.

But all authorities except the county council refused to give details of each payment, saying it would negate the agreement.

Andy Silvester, spokesman for the campaign group Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be furious at the scale of these payouts.

“When the council should be looking for savings, it’s totally inappropriate to waste this amount of money on individuals not even working for residents any more.

“There has to be a crackdown on these generous goodbyes.”

Reasons for which compromise agreements are made include breaching employment rights such as early termination of contract or discrimination.

Between April 2012 and April 2013, Oxford City Council paid £386,000.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: “These are, on the face of it, surprisingly large sums of taxpayers’ money going in settlements and it is right they are brought to the light and councils held to account for the reasons.

“A close eye needs to be kept on whether this is providing best value and safeguarding the public from service cuts.

“The public has a right to know the distinction between how much is being paid as efficiency changes, and how much to buy silence.”

He said Oxford City Council gave most of the money to middle managers made redundant in “restructuring” to save £4.5m over three years. The council’s annual accounts statement in 2012/13 said cash is set aside for the payments such as for court cases that may require compensation.

A statement from South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils said the deals are “a formal agreement or decision that ends a disagreement”.

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Paul Smith said: “Councils and public sector bodies have for a number of years now had to reduce staff as a result of well-documented cuts to funding.

“People who have been made redundant are entitled to redundancy payments in law.”

Conservative Banbury MP Sir Tony Baldry said local councils were bound by employment law. He said: “Without knowing the details of the cases concerned it is impossible to tell whether decisions any individual council has taken are reasonable or not.”

The other councils did not respond to a request for comment.

Where the money was spent

Oxford city (5 years)
Yearly average: £449,356
Vale of White Horse (3 years)
Yearly average: £32,643
South Oxfordshire (3 years)
Yearly average: £12,564
Cherwell (10 years)
Yearly average: £38,336.66
West Oxfordhsire (10 years)
Yearly average: £16,400
Oxfordshire County Council (10 years)
Yearly average: £43,062
Total yearly average: £592,361

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