CHIEF executive Duncan Sharkey and other senior officers of Somerset Council are to receive backdated pay rises just months after overseeing hundreds of staff lose their jobs.

The 3.2 per cent pay hike from April 1 will cost the near-bankrupt authority £121,400 and it will have to take £37,800 from reserves because it only budgeted £83,600.

The increases were defended by Liberal Democrat Cllr Sarah Wakefield, portfolio holder for adult services, housing, and homelessness, as ‘not a huge award’.

Cllr Wakefield complained a special committee meeting was needed to rubber stamp the increase instead of it being automatic.

She said: “It might be different if they were saying everybody had to have a 10 per cent increase, and we thought that was too much.”