Top brass at Ceredigion County Council will see new roles and £10,000 pay hikes as part of the chief executive’s plans to restructure the senior management team at the authority.

Chief Executive Eifion Evans, in a report due to be put before a full council meeting on 17 July, said that existing pay scales for senior staff are “no longer fit for purpose”, while hailing the success of the council leadership during the ‘Gold Command’ period where senior officers made decisions without councillor input throughout, and in the aftermath of, the coronavirus pandemic.

The council’s current senior team structure includes the Chief Executive, two corporate directors and 13 corporate lead officers – coming at a wage cost of £1.95m a year.

It was that structure that led the county through the pandemic period, where a Gold Command was established to oversee decision making for two years, making a wide range of pandemic related decisions without the full input of councillors, including the setting-up of the safe zones in town centres across the county, and the reintroduction of parking fees.

In a report on his restructuring plan, Mr Evans praised the period saying “the experience of the pandemic and postpandemic period has proven the benefits of having a leadership team equipped to adapt to changing circumstances.”

Mr Evans’ restructuring plan will see one corporate director and the corporate lead officer for schools roles removed from the current structure with responsibilities dispersed among a new concentrated pyramid of three new Executive Corporate Lead Officer roles, underneath Mr Evans and a new second in command Executive Corporate Director role.

While those roles will come with salary increases to a maximum of £123,221 a year under the proposals, the loss of two senior staff positions will see the overall cost in wages of the leadership structure fall by £120,000 a year to £1.83m.

In the latest set of council accounts for 2023/24, corporate directors in Ceredigion earned between £108,000 and £111,000.

The pay bumps for the most senior positions will see a pay rise of around £10,000 a year.

Mr Evans’ pay – which currently stands at £142,141 a year but is set to be boosted by 3.2 per cent for the current year if unions can agree on the terms of a pay offer – will not be affected by the changes.

In his report, Mr Evans said pay scale changes introduced six years ago were “no longer fit for purpose.”

“The challenge of recruiting to senior management and chief officer roles has been reported numerous times and reflected in the number of applications received for these senior roles over a number of years,” Mr Evans said in his report.

“Whilst this proposal will not fully address those issues the increase in responsibility should be reflected in a revised pay scale structure.”

If the proposals are approved by full council, a consultation will be undertaken with staff and trade unions.