Council 5 on 'rich list' of public servants

The annual Town Hall Rich List, produced by the Taxpayers' Alliance, gives details of senior local government staff whose salary exceeds £100,000.

Five employees at Glasgow City Council and its subsidiary companies make the top 10 for the largest remuneration packages.

In total, the Glasgow authority has, or had, 27 employees earning more than £100,000.

Third in the list is former assistant director of Land and Environment Services Thomas McDonald, whose £520,590 total remuneration included £342,957 in pension contributions.

William Docherty, of Glasgow Council subsidiary company City Building, who got £485,698, is fourth.

Fifth is Steven Kelly, also of City Building, who earned £481,166.

Ninth is the council's former head of Land and Environmental Services Robert Booth, whose £382,789 total included £171,929 in pension contributions.

And 10th on the list is the council's one-time head of Service Development Kenneth Harkness, who got £371,610.

The largest pay package overall, excluding larger than usual, one-off payments, was that of John Sharkey, group chief executive of SEC, which owns and operates the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. He received £314,553.

SEC is a private company whose majority shareholder is Glasgow City Council.

Second in the top 10 list is South Lanarkshire Council's Linda Hardie, whose total remuneration was £543,538.

Matthew Sinclair of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Residents won't be impressed if their council pleads poverty when it is demanding more and more council tax, only then to spend it creating more town hall tycoons."

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "These figures have been artificially inflated by redundancy payments. This will save £55.3million from our wage bill every year."

South Lanarkshire Council said Ms Hardie retired in April 2011 and that the figure quoted does not reflect the current salary structure."

stef.lach@ heraldandtimes.co.uk