Duncan reacted with disbelief to the news that the new chief executive of Wiltshire Council will be paid between £171,000 and £189,000 a year – on a par with the Prime Minister and around £25,000 more than the acting-chief exec. It has since been announced that the acting-chief executive will not be applying for the job but will instead be in line for a bumper redundancy payout.

Prospective local Lib Dem MP, Duncan Hames, said: “The Conservatives promised us that the move to a single council would save taxpayers money but instead they have voted for this massive pay-hike and are spending £50,000 on consultants to find a candidate for the job. At a time when many people are having to tighten their belts and are thinking very carefully about what they spend, Wiltshire Conservatives prove to be completely out of touch with ordinary people.”

Duncan has also spoken out against the size of the redundancy payments which the Council has been giving to outgoing senior staff: “The reason why payments, such as the one the outgoing Chief Executive might expect, are so large is that senior Conservative councillors met in secret session and agreed an exceptionally generous increased redundancy policy. No one made them do it. Where else would it cost over £6 millions to make 35 people redundant? Their generosity with taxpayers’ money was extraordinary. They would not have done it with their own money in their own businesses, of that I’m sure.

“I have written to the Audit Commission asking them to investigate the council’s policy on redundancy payments. There was no need for so much taxpayers’ money to be shared by so few. It really is scandalous.”