FOUR senior officials in Argyll and Bute were paid salaries in the 2024/25 financial year totalling almost £500,000, it has been reported.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance has published its annual Town Hall Rich List for the year, detailing local authority staff who earn more than £100,000 in total remuneration.
Argyll and Bute Council’s chief executive and two executive directors are listed along with the general manager of liveArgyll, who manage leisure services on behalf of the council.
In total, the Town Hall Rich List found that 4,733 local authority employees across the UK were paid more than £100,000 in 2024/25, 21.2 per cent more than the previous year.
It also revealed that 1,255 had remuneration of at least £150,000, and 366 had remuneration of at least £200,000.
The data published states that council chief executive Pippa Milne received a salary of £152,645 in 2024/25, £438 in expenses, and an £11,376 pension contribution, making a total of £164,459.
Executive director Kirsty Flanagan received a salary of £122,523, £662 in expenses and a £9,220 pension contribution, totalling £133,405.
Fellow executive director Douglas Hendry was awarded the same pension contribution, along with a salary of £122,961 and £804 in expenses, meaning a total of £132,985.
Kevin Anderson, general manager of LiveArgyll, was said to have been paid a salary of £91,043 with no expenses, with a pension contribution of £14,286, adding up to £105,329.
The four totals add up to £536,178, with the salaries alone coming to £490,172.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are caught in a pincer movement with a record-breaking tax burden on one side and a bloated public sector feathering its nest on the other.
“Our latest Town Hall Rich List exposes a surging class of council bosses enjoying six-figure packages, even as they plead poverty, slash frontline services, and hike council tax bills far beyond inflation.
“Residents can see exactly how many local bureaucrats are receiving plush packages and judge for themselves whether they’re getting value for money.”
An Argyll and Bute Council spokesperson said: “The council has reduced its senior leadership by more than 50 per cent since 1996 including council-funded roles in liveArgyll and HSCP (health and social care partnership) and continues to go through change and public sector reform.
“Despite the reduction in management the council continues to deliver an increasing range of statutory duties, including many services other councils do not have to deliver, across Argyll and Bute and its 28 inhabited islands.”
