PRESSURE was mounting last night on a North-East council chief to hand back a £10,000 pay rise after it emerged he was asked to take four weeks’ unpaid leave to try to restore public confidence.

Hartlepool MP Iain Wright described the 6.8 per cent pay rise for Hartlepool Borough Council chief executive Paul Walker as “grossly crass and insensitive”

and said the month-long furlough went some way to provide compensation for the rise.

“Whether you are in the public or private sector, there should be some restraint when it comes to pay at the moment,” Mr Wright said.

“But I don’t think he should accept the pay rise.

“People have been stopping me in the street, they are absolutely furious.

“Just think of what services could have been saved with that £10,000.”

His comments were echoed by Edwin Jeffries, Hartlepool branch secretary at Unison, who warned the issue would not be quickly forgotten by people in the town.

Mr Jeffries said: “Unison recognises the gesture made by the chief executive of offering to take four weeks’ unpaid leave. However, it is still within the gift of the chief executive to show personal resolve and leadership and turn this pay rise down.”

He added: “The damage that this has done to industrial relations, the reputation of individuals and Hartlepool as a whole will not easily be forgotten.”

It emerged yesterday that Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond had stepped into the row and asked Mr Walker to take the unpaid leave 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.

Mr Drummond said he was “gutted” at how the reputation of the town had been damaged, during what he described as the longest week of his life.

He said: “I have asked the chief executive to take four weeks’ unpaid leave over the course of the upcoming financial year and I am pleased to report that he has agreed to do so.

“This will generate a saving to the council of nearly £13,000 and I believe this is a fair and necessary step given the current circumstances and I hope it will go some way to rebuilding some public confidence in the cabinet and repair some of our reputation with the Government.”

Mr Drummond also revealed that his wife, Rebecca, who works in the council’s child and adult services department, will be made redundant next month.

A survey by The Northern Echo found that Mr Walker is the only council chief executive in the region to receive a pay rise. Last week, Bob Neill, a minister in the Department of Communities and Local Government, said chief executives should take voluntary pay cuts.

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has called for full council committees to decide the salary increases of top staff and for chief executives earning more than £150,000 to take a five per cent pay cut.

Charlotte Linacre, campaign manager at the Tax- Payers’ Alliance, said last night: “It is very worrying that spending on bureaucrats’ generous pay and perks continues to spiral.”

Mr Walker has declined to comment.