Highland Council appoints four officials to new £105,487 a year roles, the top team wage bill now tops £1.5 million in salaries alone
Highland Council has appointed four chief officers in the latest phase of its new senior management restructure – that equates to almost £1 million worth of salaries in recent weeks.
The council leader Raymond Bremner insists the restructuring will save £310,000 “in the short-term”. If you add up the pay for the chief executive, three assistant chief executives and at least nine chief officers so far it tops £1.5 million.
The new structure consists of three service clusters: People, Place and Corporate and the latest roles all go into the corporate structure: legal, finance, business solutions, revenue and commercialisation.
The new appointments will directly report to assistant chief executive Allan Gunn and are:
Jon Shepherd – chief officer – business solutions. He is currently the head of ICT and Digital Transformation, leading the project to bring ICT services in-house. He has worked for the local authority since 1996.
Brian Porter – chief officer – corporate finance. He has been the interim head of corporate finance since March 2023, and was the head of resources from 2014 onwards. He has worked for the council for 35 years.
Stewart Fraser – chief officer – legal and corporate governance. He has been head of legal and democratic services with the council since 2012, prior to that he was the council’s legal manager – litigation and advice from 2008. His time with the local authority goes back to Highland Regional Council days in 1994.
Sheila Armstrong – chief officer – revenues and commercialisation. She was previously head of revenues and customer services, and has held several management positions.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Bremner said: “In this latest round of appointments I am pleased to see the Council’s senior management structure progressing with continued pace.
“The new structure will initially deliver savings of £310,000, as part of the budget savings agreed by council in February, and it is anticipated that savings will eventually equate to around 20% of senior management team costs as part of a more streamlined management structure.”
