Exclusive: Row as fire chief gets '˜secret' payout for working through strikes

The Labour-dominated fire authority barred members of the public when it met to discuss and approve the payment to John Roberts, who at the time was in the process of leaving South Yorkshire to become West Yorkshire’s chief fire officer – a role he is due to begin today.

The authority has not responded to a series of questions about the arrangement but has said it is launching an internal investigation into how The Yorkshire Post learnt of the payment, which was approved on January 16.

It has emerged Mr Roberts, who received a salary package of £151,000 last year, will receive the money after the authority agreed to allow chief officers to retrospectively claim hundreds of hours in lieu time for working during industrial action that hit the fire service nationally between 2013 and 2015.

It is unclear why the authority made the generous offer last July when only months before chief fire officers were pressed to repay overtime payments running to £42,000 after it was revealed they had been secretly approved by former chairman Jim Andrews, who later resigned, without the knowledge of anyone else on the authority.

The fire authority’s formal minutes show a report on the lieu time proposal was meant to be presented for approval but never materialised. Instead, the arrangement was just noted as being approved at a meeting in July without any further public scrutiny.

As a result, the deputy chief was able to claim 270 hours or around seven weeks in lieu time but has only been able to take 50 of them off before taking up his new role at West Yorkshire.

Consequently, the authority has found itself agreeing to pay Mr Roberts £12,500 for 220 outstanding hours after previously securing an agreement from the same officer to repay £13,425 he received for 270 hours’ overtime.

It is not known whether Mr Roberts had completed repaying the money before receiving the new payment. His lieu time payment has been calculated at a higher hourly rate than that previously used for the overtime pay.

The move has infuriated opposition councillors and the Fire Brigades Union and it again places the fire authority in a highly unusual position of offering perks to chief officers not available elsewhere.

The two non-Labour members on the authority, Sheffield Lib Dem councillor Steve Ayris and Doncaster Conservative councillor Cynthia Ransome, issued a joint statement which said: “Once again council taxpayers will be scratching their heads at how the fire authority has got itself into another mess. After everything the authority went through after first making secret overtime payments to chief officers it’s incredible we’ve still ended up using taxpayers’ money in this way.

“It’s even more concerning that the authority refused to discuss this in public and members were never presented with a report. Council taxpayers have a right to know.”