Hertfordshire County Council chief executive Angie Ridgwell is to be awarded a 3.3% pay increase, in line with other council staff – taking her salary to around £260,000.

The majority of staff at the authority were given a 3.3% increase, back-dated to April 1, earlier this year.

At a meeting of the employment committee on Tuesday (September 29), councillors agreed that the chief executive and other senior staff should have the same rise.

According to the report presented to the committee, Ms Ridgwell's salary is already £31,000 higher than the average paid to council chief execs in Hertfordshire's five neighbouring authorities.

Those neighbouring salaries range between £201,000 and £243,000 – with an average of £220,303.

And once the 3.3% increase is applied, the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that that would put Ms Ridgwell on a salary of £260,118.

At the same meeting, councillors also agreed to increase the salaries of executive directors by 3.3%.

And they agreed to recommend to the chief executive that the salaries of directors and heads of service be increased by the same.

According to the report, the 149 staff members at this senior level have salaries that range between £72,000 and £201,303.

Those at executive director level at Hertfordshire County Council, says the report, are currently paid between £137,729 and £201,303.

That's compared to a range of between £160,000 and £191,000 in neighbouring councils.

And the 3.3% pay award will increase to a range between £142,274 and £207,945.

Directors' salaries, according to the report, currently range between £97,016 and £146,573 – compared to £121,000 and £146,000 in neighbouring authorities.

Once the pay award is applied, they will range between £100,217 and £151,409.

For those employed as heads of service, the current pay range in Hertfordshire is reported to be between £72,268 and £107,284 – compared to a range of £61,000 to £113,500 in neighbouring authorities.

Once the increase is applied, their salaries will rise to between £74,652 and £110,824.

As a result of the increases, according to the report, the council's senior manager pay bill will increase by around £1.1m.

The recommendations were agreed by the cross-party committee.

But Cllr Kirsty Taylor-Moran (Green, Ware North) did express concerns that pay increases for all staff at the council were not high enough.

She said: "I support the recommendations – but I do also have some issues with them

"Firstly, I don't think it's actually enough of a pay increase – and I think that goes for all of our staff – in that it is not keeping pace with the rising cost of living.

"And whether our staff are on £30,000 or £130,000, they shouldn't have to absorb that because of our inability to keep pace with what their wages should be rising by.

"I do have some discomfort in agreeing to an increase – I know it's a percentage that's a flat rate – across everybody.

"But for people on the higher scales, that represents a significant amount of money – even though it's probably not very much after tax.

"When we have so many staff that are not in receipt of a real living wage, it makes me quite uncomfortable.

"But I don't see why we would deviate from the recommendation."