Readers have described the news that Ceredigion’s Chief Executive is receiving a £5,000 pay rise as ‘totally obscene’.

The Cambrian News revealed last week that Eifion Evans is in line for a pay rise of nearly £5,000, meaning the top civil servant at the local authority will earn an annual salary of £151,529 in the current financial year, after his staff association that represents all local authority CEOs accepted a pay rise of 3.3 per cent.

The pay rise won’t come through until negotiations between Unision, which represents council workers, and the national joint bargaining body for local government, are done.

When it does take effect, Mr Evan’s payrise will be backdated to 1 April.

He earned £146,689 in fiscal 2025-26, and the 3.3 per cent rise equates to another £4,840.73 for 2026-27.

He has been in the post since 2017, and since 2021, his annual pay has jumped by almost £35,000.

Since 2022, the average Band D council tax in Ceredigion has gone up £550 a year – a more than 40 per cent increase in just four years.

Last year, the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives (ALACE) negotiated a 3.2 per cent pay hike for its members.

According to Ceredigion County Council accounts, in 2023-24, Mr Evans took home £138,674 in basic salary, up from £133,985 the year before.

In 2024-25, the nationally agreed pay award for Chief Officers of 2.5 per cent boosted the Chief Executive’s pay to around £142,140.

Dafydd Gibbard, the CEO of Gwynedd Council, gets a pay rise of £4,244.55, to just under £133,000.

Tracey Lee, chair of ALACE, welcomed the payrise: “While we are not in a position to accept the offer at this stage, we welcome its parity with the offer made to other staff groups.

“We also welcome the continued recognition by employers’ of the critical role that chief executives and senior officers provide to their communities.”

Councillors, residents and other politicians have reacted with concern at yet another pay rise.

One councillor, who asked not to be named says Eifion gets mentioned regularly when speaking to residents.

They said: “Councillors are looking after him.

“The council leader Bryan Davies needs to be more accountable. We wouldn’t be in half of this mess if they did.

“Eifion is being protected by the cabinet.

“You’ve got to cut off the head of the snake.

“When have you seen the cabinet ever go against Eifion or the officers?

“I’ve never seen them challenge him. Eifion is running the council and we haven’t got strong councillors.”

Newly elected Reform MS for Ceredigion Penfro, Paul Marr, reacted to the news, saying: “In Ceredigion nearly one third of households and approximately 28% of children live in poverty. This is a huge concern to Reform Wales, and with families struggling to pay for escalating utilities and food costs, it is difficult to justify this level of pay rise.”

The reaction from residents was even stronger.

Commenting on the Cambrian News Facebook page, Barbara Jones wrote: “This is quite obscene! To earn such a ridiculous amount of our money this person should be doing an incredible job of being CEO! Can anyone tell me that he is?”

Marc Chapple wrote: “What I find difficult to comprehend, he gets £151k to run a relatively small county with only a 72,600 population but the First Minister for Wales who has a population of 3.1 million gets £174,600, a difference of £23,100.

“Maybe all the councillors should consider whether this is money well spent when everybody in their constituencies are having to consistently pay more council tax year after year and receive less services year after year.”

Philip Dennis wrote: “Local Authority Chief Executives are receiving a pay rise. I can understand that. They are in line with rises for the public sector.

“What I can’t understand is why the pay doesn’t in some way reflect the size of the population.

“Gwynedd population 120,000 Chief Exec £133k. That’s £1.11 per person.

“Ceredigion population 72,600 Chief Exec £151,500 That’s £2.09 per person.”

Catherine Pard-Beddowes quipped: “Is he going to put it towards the cost of the annual silt removal in the harbour?”

Sandra McCarthy wrote: “Cardigan pool not opened, harbour full of silt , higher parking fees ... sounds like Nottingham back in days gone by..”

Bethan Davies similarly said: “I don’t think it’s for performance related, with the amount of potholes in roads getting worse through this county.

“Ciliau Aeron to Felinfach is just one example. They have marked it out for chipping re surfacing, that will not fill the potholes.

“Blocked road gulleys and drains need cleaning ,so that surface rain water can drain away instead of causing deep puddles we have to drive through. I could carry on. I have given up complaining to the council, if you can get through to them.”

Michael Cronin wrote: “Absolutely disgusting and disgraceful, he should be ashamed!”

Julie Ty Capel wrote: “The council should be ashamed. The poor families are poor. Not a care in the world. It’s the car park on the prom who's paying his increase. Its ok for them to have their lavish life with no worry of anything.

“People can't even afford to live. Shame on the council.”

Nerys Lloyd Owen asked: “I'd love to know. If the chief executive gets£151k. How much do his underdogs get? So corporate directors/ corporate lead directors. 2 corporate directors earning over 100k And 13 corporate lead directors all earning between £77k a year and £94k That's over a million pounds spent! Absolutely astounding.”

In July last year, Plaid Cymru councillors approved plans to give top brass at Ceredigion County Council new roles and bumper pay hikes.

The new structure sees a new concentrated pyramid of three new Executive Corporate Lead Officer roles, underneath Mr Evans and a new second in command Executive Corporate Director role.

The Executive Corporate Director role has a salary increase to a maximum of £123,221 a year.

In the latest set of council accounts for 2024/25, the single corporate director in Ceredigion earned between £114,120 and is likely to have gone up three per cent this year.

The pay bump for the most senior position will see a pay rise of around £10,000 a year.

Corporate Lead Officers were paid between £85,162 and £99,937 a year, according to the 2024/25 accounts, which are the latest published.

Those who take on the new Executive Corporate Lead Officer roles will see pay rises of up to £20,000 a year to the new maximum for that role of £106,806, while those who stay in the Corporate Lead Officer roles will see a pay bump to a maximum of £92,016 a year.

Proposing the pay hikes for top brass last year, Eifion Evans said that Ceredigion staff are paid less than their peers in neighbouring counties, and “this is a chance to do something to show we appreciate the work they do.”

He also told councillors that “Many members of the public have got in touch with me and have said they are happy with the plan.”