A COUNCIL boss awarded a controversial £10,000 pay rise has spoken out for the first time, after the row reached the House of Commons.

Under-fire Hartlepool Borough Council chief executive Paul Walker broke his silence to criticise the town's MP, Iain Wright.

Mr Walker claims correspondence with the MP about his salary was private and should never have been raised in Westminster.

Speaking in the House of Commons earlier this week, Mr Wright said: "I have written to the chief executive asking him, in the current climate, to waive that salary increase in back pay, but I have received an unrepentant and defiant response from him saying that "mob rule seems to have been the order of the day".

"What can the Secretary of State do to curb such an arrogant sense of entitlement from some senior executives in local government with regard to pay?"

Mr Walker last night responded, claiming he should be treated the same as other staff.

"My letter to Iain Wright was private and I did not expect him to raise it on the floor of the House of Commons," he said.

"The letter was written to set in context the background and time scales to the review of my salary and I was simply trying to get the point across that it's only reasonable that I'm treated the same as all other council employees." He added: "The council's policy states that my salary should be reviewed every three years and the previous review was 2003.

"By the end of 2008 the salaries of all 4,500 employees had been reviewed apart from mine. "In the Autumn of 2009 cabinet agreed my revised salary scale. The scrutiny co-ordinating committee then called in the decision and didn't report back to cabinet until November 2010.

"Cabinet then agreed the revised salary level."

Last week Mr Walker agreed to take a four-week unpaid holiday after Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond stepped in because of growing public anger over the revelation that his salary had reached £168,000 a year at a time when the authority is facing severe cuts, including 86 job losses.

Hartlepool Borough Council will receive £14.2m less in Government grants for 2011-12, equating to a drop of £112 per person across the town - the ninth biggest reduction in the country.

Robert Neill, parliamentary under-secretary of state for communities and local government, said a proposal in the Localism Bill would force authorities to have a policy to inform the public on pay and hold them accountable for the decisions.