The Orkney council boss who lives in... Edinburgh

Mammoth commute lands taxpayers with a £75k bill

TAXPAYERS have been left with a £75,000 bill by a council chief who commutes from his Edinburgh home to his job in Orkney.

John Mundell has driven or flown between Edinburgh and Orkney 108 times, racking up enough miles in two years to circumnavigate the globe.

Since the former Inverclyde Council boss began running Orkney Islands Council on a temporary basis in the summer of 2019, he has been paid £442,502 in salary, allowances and special election payments.

But an investigation by the Press and Journal found that Mr Mundell has also racked up approximately £75,000 in expenses for his travel, including car mileage, air fares and ferry tickets.

In the past two years alone, he has had expenses-paid trips from Edinburgh to Orkney that total an estimated 26,000 miles – about 1,000 miles more than the circumference of the Earth.

The council admitted its interim boss does not live on Orkney, so his travel and accommodation expenses ‘reflect that fact’.

Mr Mundell claimed £24,122.55 in expenses in 2021-22, up from £21,675.28 the year before – with a similar figure for 2019-2020.

This included flying between Edinburgh and Orkney 49 times and making the journey 16 times by car and ferry. In 2020-21, he made 27 trips by plane and another 16 visits by road and sea. Mr Mundell’s expenses also reveal claims for parking, taxis and meals.

The council has repeatedly failed to find a permanent replacement for former chief executive Alistair Buchan, and is still advertising the top job, which includes a base salary of £113,694 and a bonus of £15,000 for every year in post. It has reportedly spent more than £15,000 on three unsuccessful recruitment drives.

Scottish Green Highlands and Islands MSP Ariane Burgess said: ‘All of us should be thinking about our carbon footprint, and that includes Orkney Islands Council.

‘If the temporary chief executive is clocking up all of these road and air miles then it raises questions about how the council is being run. Could more of his work be done remotely?’

An Orkney Islands Council spokesman said last night that Mr Mundell ‘does not live on Orkney and therefore, of course, there are going to be additional expenses attached’.

She added: ‘While in Orkney, he is entitled to be housed within paidfor accommodation and included meals when staying in a hotel, for example – this is not new, this is not something untoward.’

However, she said that the arrangement is not, ‘nor was it ever meant to be’, permanent.