Ceredigion council CEO Eifion Evans is in line for a pay rise of nearly £5,000, Cambrian News can reveal.

The county council’s top boss 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.”