A STRATEGY to keep leading officers at a Teesside authority has been dubbed a "a charter for driving up wage bills".

In the scheme, Hartlepool Borough Council will be able to offer senior officers an extra ten per cent of their annual salary if they are offered a better-paid job elsewhere.

Councillors Robbie Payne and Stanley Fortune objected to the scheme, saying it would simply push up wages for the best paid.

But Hartlepool Council's cabinet agreed the strategy of recruitment and retention payments yesterday.

It was decided it was needed after the council lost a number of senior staff, including its former chief executive Brian Dinsdale, to Middlesbrough Borough Council last year.

The scheme includes the opportunity to increase wages to leading officers by ten per cent if they have been offered a job elsewhere.

It also includes a so-called "golden handcuffs" scheme for new employees, involving a series of progressive salary increases during their employment and a lump sum after staying in their post for an agreed period.

But speaking in committee at Hartlepool Civic Centre, Labour member Coun Payne said the scheme was a "charter to drive up wage bills".

He said: "It always seems to be senior officers who get these schemes and wage increases.

There's a shortage of plumbers and brick builders in Hartlepool but they never seem to get anything like this. It's always people on huge sums already. The fact is that if someone leaves, everyone pitches in and the job still gets done."

Conservative member Coun Fortune agreed with Coun Payne.

He said: "We must look for promotions within the council and selling ourselves to new employees as a highly successful, friendly council."

But Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond said it was important to install the policy to retain leading staff.

He said: "Sometimes people don't have the experience to fill posts.

"If six leading staff say they are going to leave tomorrow that could cause major problems."

Chief executive Paul Walker, who was recruited on an annual salary of £140,000 last year, said that the extra money would be offered as an exception and would not be the general rule.

He said: "We are talking about exceptions. We pay less than all the other authorities in the area and we are talking about keeping key posts."