Former Council Chief Executive's 'bumper pay-off' finally revealed

Roger Ellis

It has taken over a year, but Rochdale Council has finally released details of former Chief Executive Roger Ellis' pay off. Mr Ellis, who took early retirement in March 2012, received £76,798.20.

Mr Ellis' £76,798.20 came on top of a total of £175,000 in salary, expenses and pension contributions.

Interestingly, the Freedom of Information response from the Council refers to "redundancy" rather than "retirement" - retirement not redundancy being insisted on by the Council when Mr Ellis left:

"I write to confirm that Roger Ellis left under the Voluntary Early Redundancy scheme and the redundancy figure for Roger Ellis was £76,798.20."

Following his retirement/redundancy, Mr Ellis was grilled by a Home Affairs Select Committee about the child sex grooming shame that happened in Rochdale under his watch. Rochdale Borough Council had been criticised for staff "deficiencies" in a report by the town's safeguarding children board after nine men had been convicted of running a child sex ring in Rochdale, but Mr Ellis told the Select Committee he knew nothing of the abuse until the men's arrests in 2010 and felt no "personal culpability".

Cheryl Eastwood, former Executive Director, Children's Services, Rochdale Borough Council contradicted former Chief Executive Roger Ellis' claim, answering a question from the committee chairman, Keith Vaz MP, about whether she had briefed Mr Ellis, something that Mr Ellis had categorically told the committee had not happened, Ms Eastwood said it had and that she had briefed Mr Ellis.

When asked by the Select Committee if he received a pay-off, Mr Ellis told the committee he could not reveal the amount due to "confidentiality".

MP for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk criticised Mr Ellis for refusing to disclose details of his "bumper pay-off" and called for a significant portion of it to be given back.

In November 2012, Rochdale Online had submitted a Freedom of Information request regarding Mr Ellis' pay off but the Council rejected the FOI request on the grounds of Data Protection and a confidentiality clause, despite Rochdale Online pointing out that the Data Protection Act was not applicable and the Government had ruled confidentiality clauses in such circumstances are invalid.

Rochdale Online resubmitted the Freedom of Information request on the 5 March 2013. When no response had been forthcoming within the 20 days allowed, Rochdale Online reminded the Council that a response was required. On the 10 May the response was finally forthcoming.