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Bournemouth Council has defended its decision to pay more than £200,000 to an interim manager. The council said it was paying the ‘market rate' cost of £206,014 to cover its transport portfolio, and warned funding streams would be at risk if the role had been left empty. Councillors and the media had questioned the amount being paid for a job which an independent agency estimated carried a salary of £50,603. The council had come under fire for spending the money on its transportation service manager, James Duncan, who flies from his home in Edinburgh every week to work in Bournemouth. The council recruited Mr Duncan on an interim basis, but he has now been in the post for 14 months. The council justified the cost by weighing how much government funding it would lose out on if it did not recruit a high-calibre person for the job. It also blamed a lack of suitably-qualified candidates for the high cost of the role. Mike Holmes, director of planning and transport, admitted his salary was ‘more than necessary'. He said: ‘We do not believe it is acceptable to leave such a vital role unfilled. We recognise this is a lot of money. But it is the market rate for a quality individual. Our £800,000 of discretionary government grant depends on us continuing to do well in this area and we cannot afford to risk losing that in future. ‘Of course, we do not want to be paying more than necessary for this post but, after advertising the post twice, we have failed to attract the calibre of person necessary to fill the position. ‘It was always the intention to re-advertise this post on conclusion of our equal pay review, which is now scheduled for this summer, and we fully intend to do so.'

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WHITEHALL

Interim pay worth it says Bournemouth

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