LARGE payouts to departing members of staff at Slough Borough Council should be more closely scrutinised before being approved, the town’s Conservatives say.

The Tories are bringing a motion to full council on September 28 calling for the threshold of a severance package, requiring approval by members, to drop. Currently a redundancy or severance deal of £100,000 or more requires approval by the full council but the Tories want this lowered to £60,000.

It comes off the back of a number of high profile departures, including former chief executive, Ruth Bagley, who left with more than £300,000.

Cllr Wayne Strutton (Con, Haymill & Lynch Hill), Tory leader, said: “We are bringing this motion as we are concerned about the growing number of exit packages which are negotiated ‘behind closed doors’ without effective scrutiny from elected members.

“We want to curb any future financial risks both to the council and to Slough taxpayers.” 

This newspaper recently reported how Tracy Luck, assistant director of strategy and engagement, left the organisation at the beginning of the summer while Gurpreet Anand, assistant director of procurement and commercial services, followed suit. It has currently not been made public as to whether they received pay deals.

But Cllr Ted Plenty (Lab, Langley St Mary’s) learnt that 12 settlement agreements were reached by the council with employees in 2016/17, including the year to date.

He is calling for a discussion at the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee to discover who the payments were to, the sums, and why they were necessary.

Cllr Sohail Munawar, council leader, said: “After trying to make sense of yet another Tory motion, Labour members have some sympathy with what we think Cllr Strutton is trying to achieve.

“However, all officers of the council are entitled to their statutory rights and privacy and that should always be respected. We agree there is some merit in reporting to council if an officer leaves with more than their statutory entitlement.”