Harrogate council chief set to receive £100,000 redundancy package

Harrogate Borough Council will cease to exist on April 1st 2023 along with six other district councils and North Yorkshire County Council.

A new unitary authority called North Yorkshire Council will replace them to run services across the county.

A report has been published ahead of a HBC committee next Thursday where councillors will be asked to approve a package worth £101,274 for Mr Sampson, who became chief executive in 2008.

The total is made up of a contractual £71,633 redundancy payment and £29,641 for a 12 week notice period that he will not have to work as his job will end on March 31st.

Mr Sampson is paid a salary of £118,447.

After Harrogate Borough Council is abolished, his employment would automatically transfer to North Yorkshire Council.

However, the report says because the new council is “likely to refuse to recognise” Mr Samson as an employee he would be “effectively stranded” and it could lead to an unfair dismissal claim.

A redundancy package offered now would therefore reduce the “risk of the risk of costly legal proceedings that will be picked up by the public purse.”

A council spokesperson added: “A report has been produced and published and it is now a matter for the committee to decide on the recommendation proposed.”

Current North Yorkshire County Council chief executive Richard Flinton has already been announced as the chief executive of North Yorkshire Council.

He will earn a salary of up to £197,000 a year with responsibility for an annual budget of £1.4 billion and a workforce of 10,500 staff.

Mr Sampson’s proposed redundancy package is lower than other outgoing North Yorkshire district council chief executives.

Harrogate Borough Council was last year told to change its rules on payouts for departing staff after auditors raised concerns over what they described as “inappropriate expenditure.”

Last week, the Local Democracy Service reported that Janet Waggott, chief executive of Selby District Council, is set to receive a redundancy package worth £210,000.

In September, a £225,000 redundancy settlement for Hambleton District Council’s chief executive, Justin Ives, was criticised by both Unison and the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

Mr Sampson has worked in local government for over 35 years.

He was previously a director at Bradford Council for eight years where he helped to support regeneration programmes in some of the city’s most deprived communities.

In 2019 he was awarded an OBE for services to business and the community in Yorkshire.