Cash-strapped Cheshire East Council is looking to fill six top jobs and is prepared to pay more than three-quarters of a million pounds in total for the right people.

The advertisements for the top posts come at a time when the council, which is predicting a £20m overspend at the end of this financial year, is slashing services including closing tips, reducing library opening hours, hiking up fees such as parking charges and green bin collection costs and introducing three-weekly bin collections in 2026.

The posts were advertised this week in the MJ.

If all six are taken at the lowest rate the total salaries would amount to £560,623.

If all six were employed at the highest salary rate that would be £727,953 in total.

It is probable the figure will be somewhere in between.

The jobs on offer are:

• executive director of resources (S151) at a salary ranging from £131,208 to £148,823;
• director of public health at a salary ranging from £85,883 to £115,826;
• director of planning and environment at a salary ranging from £85,883 to £115,826;
• director of people at a salary ranging from £85,883 to £115,826
• assistant chief executive with a salary ranging from £85,883 to £115,826
• monitoring officer with a salary ranging from £85,883 to £115,826

Most are replacements as the authority has haemorrhaged top bosses over the past year.

Former head of finance and S151 officer Alex Thompson quit in May and so has far been replaced by an interim.

Deborah Woodcock resigned as executive director of children's services at the end of July,

Former executive director of place Jayne Traverse has also gone and former monitoring officer David Brown left in August.

Former director of public health Matt Tyrer left in September.

In some cases, where interims are standing in, the council could be saving money when it takes on a permanent staff member.

The role of assistant chief executive, however, is a new post.

And at full council next week, councillors are also going to be asked for permission to employ an additional children's director at a cost of more than £100,000. This too will be a new post.

None of the figures quoted above include on-costs of pension and national insurance, so the cost to the council will be higher than the salaries quoted.

The authority also has to take recruitment costs into account.

These can be massive for top posts.

The council spent a whopping £37,736 just on the recruitment process to get current chief executive Rob Polkinghorne into post.

Cheshire East Council is currently undergoing a management restructure as it aims to reduce costs and make savings.