A CONTROVERSIAL decision to award "wholly inappropriate" pay rises to highly paid top officers at Middlesbrough Council is to be investigated in the new year.

Former council leader Ken Walker instigated a review of the resolution which would have seen four executive officers' pay rise to more than £100,000.

Now the authority's overview and scrutiny board will determine whether the pay rise was correctly considered before the 15 per cent increase was rubber-stamped by Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon earlier this month.

At the time, Councillor Walker was outraged by the decision and branded the increases "offensive, obscene and wholly inappropriate".

The campaigning councillor has drafted a list of questions that he believes need to be answered before the pay rise can be ratified.

"Why was this very important and understandably controversial report not sent to the council's full executive, thus avoiding unnecessary criticism and enabling all executive members to openly participate?" he asked.

"This would have also allowed the relevant members with the responsibility for the respective executive directors to give their reasons for support of such substantial salary increases."

The executive directors with salaries of £87,267 are Tim White, regeneration, Jan Douglas, social services, Terry Redmayne, children, families and learning, and John Richardson, environment, who is due to leave the authority for another job in the new year.

The £250-a-week increases will push their salaries into the £100,000 bracket.

Coun Walker's campaign to overturn the ruling has now received backing from the Middlesbrough branch of Unison.

In a statement, the union said that whether justifiable or not, the large increases in salary for executive directors had come at an inappropriate and insensitive time.

"Unison members, who are facing cuts in pay as a result of job evaluation being carried out within the authority, will consider this as an insult and an unnecessary drain on the overall staffing budget and the money needed to mitigate those losses.

"At a time when our members are making financial sacrifices, and the unions are working flat out to turn the job evaluation losses around, they will quite rightly feel as though this decision is a kick in the teeth."

On January 9, if the overview and scrutiny board agrees with Coun Walker's objections to the pay rise, it can refer the decision back to the council's executive for reconsideration.