Pay rises for Angus Council’s upper rungs

ANGUS Council chiefs are about to share a £32,000 salary boost as the council prunes £108k from its upper-echelon budget.

The local authority has trimmed its second tier below the chief executive — strategic directors — from three jobs to two, to save £140,000 from its wage bill. But a recommendation to councillors is for a chunk of that money to go toward the two survivors and four others on the rung below due to an increase in workload.

Former strategic director Margo Williamson was putting the changes before a meeting of the full council, in her first black-and-white action as incoming chief executive.

This was to contain a reminder “change will change” within the next three years.

The two remaining strategic directors, Mark Armstrong and Alan McKeown, will share a £9,000 hike and two increments on the chief officer pay grade, CO49 to CO51 to reflect “increased areas of accountability”.

They will helm the redesigned portfolios of “people” and “place”. And two heads of service, for HR and regulatory and protective services, will share £23,000 and an incremental change from CO33 to CO38 in line with “increased areas of responsibility”.

An exercise to consider the number and nature of posts below the heads — service managers and below — is ongoing.