Stoke-on-Trent City Council chief's pension payout revealed

A council chief executive who is getting a £230,000 payoff for leaving his job will also receive a £150,000 pension payout.

Details over Stoke-on-Trent City Council's John van de Laarschot are in a private report given to councillors before they voted through redundancy.

He is entitled to his pension payoff because he is over 55 and lost his job due to redundancy.

This means any benefits are payable immediately.

Mr van de Laarschot, who has had a £200,000-a-year job at the council, was put on extended leave five weeks ago but his exit was sealed at an extraordinary meeting of the authority,

His total payoff amounts to £378,179, including voluntary severance payments and a lump sum for his pension.

Only £84,000 of his £228,000 severance is an actual redundancy payment - £97,500 is compensation for the termination of his contract.

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Council leader Dave Conway's office said he could not comment on a legally binding, confidential document about an individual's terms of employment.

Mr Conway has previously told the BBC it was "unacceptable" to have a chief executive who earns more than £200,000 a year.

The council - which changed from a Labour-run administration to a coalition of Independents and Conservatives following May's elections - said it was saving money in the long run by not having a chief executive.

Mr van de Laarschot announced his departure as "an opportunity to look for a new challenge" after almost six years at the helm of the authority, a council statement, external has said.

Stoke-on-Trent North MP Ruth Smeeth expressed "astonishment" at the amount Mr van de Laarschot's departure had cost, and called for an urgent debate in Parliament on "golden parachutes in the public sector".

Colin Griffiths from the GMB union, said: "The cost to the taxpayer, the cost to the city council is enormous, and to me it seems like Monopoly money that's being paid out when it actually is taxpayers' money ."