Council worker emigrates 10,000 miles to Australia... but keeps his job in Cambridgeshire

His £100,000-a-year council job, however, will be travelling with them.

Mr Taylor, 44, is to continue working for the local authority as its finance chief despite emigrating 10,000 miles away.

Working down under: Council executive Mat Taylor is taking the family to Australia ... and keeping his job in Cambridgeshire

Under the extraordinary deal, Fenland District Council in Cambridgeshire is paying Mr Taylor for one day’s work a week – which works out, prorata at £20,000 a year.

He will continue to manage the council’s annual £18million budget and help any replacement ease into the role via video link and email, despite being in Adelaide with an eight-and-a-half hour time difference.

The details have emerged a few weeks after Suffolk County Council chief executive Andrea Hill – who earns £220,000, £30,000 more than the Prime Minister – claimed town hall bureaucrats deserved large salaries because their jobs were so ‘high risk’.

Mr Taylor, who is due to move in October after serving three months’ notice, yesterday defended the deal, insisting it was ‘difficult to replace a senior person straight away’.

He added: ‘We are trying to come up with an arrangement that does not cost too much money.

‘It seemed more sensible to keep my experience on board, rather than spend a lot of money on someone who had no knowledge of the workings of the council.’

But the TaxPayers’ Alliance said the plan was ludicrous.

‘How can you ease your replacement into the role when you are thousands of miles away and in a completely different time zone?’ a spokesman said.

‘Life for these local authority executives is getting very comfortable indeed.

‘They are getting paid really well when ordinary people are finding it difficult to pay their council tax bills, yet they are rarely held to account for their mistakes.’

Independent councillor Mark Archer, the only opposition member on the Tory-run council, said he was ‘gobsmacked and horrified’.

‘I think they have lost touch with reality and I certainly would not have agreed with this measure if it had been put to a vote. This guy surely isn’t irreplaceable,’ he said.

British-born Mr Taylor spent ten years as a senior accountant with Barnet Borough Council in London and two years with Kettering Borough Council in Northamptonshire before joining Fenland as executive director and chief finance officer in 2003.

He said he and his wife Kim, 41, had decided to emigrate with their three young children because it ‘seemed like an interesting place to go’.

‘We chose Adelaide because of the Mediterranean climate and there’s a good standard of living,’ he added.

He is planning to spend a few months relaxing before looking for a full-time job.

Fenland Council said it would be replacing him with a lowerlevel employee who would only be responsible for the financial department. His other duties will be assigned to other senior officers.

Deputy chief executive Sandra Claxton claimed the deal meant avoiding paying an interim manager £800 a day.

Recent analysis by the Taxpayers’ Alliance revealed 800 council managers earn more than £100,000 a year, 132 are paid more than a cabinet minister and eight have salaries of at least £200,000.

Meanwhile, homeowners have seen council tax bills double in ten years and council workers recently went on strike over a 2.45 per cent pay offer.