A PART-TIME council chief's wages of almost £1,000 a day have been described as "totally wrong".

Adam Wilkinson, interim head of paid service for the North East Combined Authority (NECA), will cost the authority £112,000 for his nine-month contract, it emerged this week.

The cost has been defended by Simon Henig, chair of NECA, who said it was important to get the right man for the job.

But regional Ukip MEP Jonathan Arnott said the payments to the part-time council boss - who will work three days a week - were "unjustifiable".

He added: "NECA apparently has to dip into its reserves to help fund this nine-month contract which at a time of such austerity is totally wrong."

Mr Arnott said it was a "further slap in the face to taxpayers" that Mr Wilkinson had received two separate redundancy pay-outs from councils in the last seven years.

Mr Wilkinson took voluntary redundancy from his role as chief executive of Derby City Council in January. He was given £140,000 compensation and three months pay.

In 2008, he received £365,000 from Kent County Council where he had been working as director of environment and regeneration. He had been in that position for just a year.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, was also critical of the pay-outs.

“Taxpayers will be astounded that at a time of necessary savings across government, such an extraordinary sum has been plucked out the back of the authority sofa to pay a part-time consultant.

“There are also serious questions to be asked about the size of the golden goodbyes that this individual has received from other councils, only to land on his feet with another lucrative job elsewhere in the country."

But Cllr Henig, chair of the North East Combined Authority (NECA), said members were very pleased to have Mr Wilkinson on board.

He added: “In order to ensure we have someone of a sufficiently high calibre we have gone through a competitive recruitment process before agreeing to appoint Adam to this interim role."

Cllr Henig said work was ongoing to appoint a permanent joint chief executive covering for NECA and the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.