A SHARED chief executive running Colchester Council and Braintree Council would probably earn in the region of £150,000, it has been claimed.

Talks about the new post, which could be in place by 2012, are ongoing between the authorites. At the moment, Colchester Council’s chief executive, Adrian Pritchard, and his Braintree Council counterpart, Allan Reid, each earn about £120,000.

Graham Butland, Braintree council leader, estimated the new salary would be between £140,000 and £150,000.

He said: “If we were to go down the route of sharing a chief executive, which we have not committed to, one would expect any post to be openly advertised for an open competition, and would expect the salary to be set by a proper job evaluation.

“I would not expect it to be anything like the same as two salaries. But if we have got salaries right at the moment then the increased scope of the job and greater significance would warrant more than the current pay.

“Using pure guesswork, it might be £140,000 to £150,000 or something like that.”

Last year, Mr Reid was paid £116,000, as well as £19,000 in pension contributions and benefits. In the same year, Mr Pritchard was paid £117,107.

Mr Butland said there were no plans to reduce Mr Reid’s salary. He said pay was set by two of three members of the council, usually the leader, opposition leader and chairman of the overview and scrutiny committee.

He said: “To be fair, he is not the highest earning chief executive by any means. I think we are quite happy where we are. The chief executive is not paid more than the Prime Minister. Neither is the Colchester chief executive.”