THE huge payout for Dorset County Council’s departing chief executive Debbie Ward has been blasted by a local MP as “a massive insult to the taxpayer”.

Ms Ward will leave her post at the end of the month with a pension pot of £300,000 and a redundancy package of £170,000 – including £40,000 for three months’ pay in lieu of notice.

But Christchurch MP Sir Christopher Chope said Ms Ward should be working out her notice period rather than being paid off.

“I am sure there is plenty of work to do in the transition period as the new Dorset rural unitary comes into being,” he said.

And the MP, who has fought against Christchurch going in with Bournemouth and Poole, said the new conurbation council should be funding her pension pot, not Dorset.

He said: “All this confirms my worst fears about the amount of taxpayers’ money going into these exit payments.

“I cannot see any justification whatsoever for such a generous settlement.

“It’s quite clear to me that this whole reorganisation project was driven by council officers who either wanted big salaries in the new set up or big pay offs to go.”

The MP has been pressing ministers to introduce a cap on local council officer pay offs but so far nothing has been done.

“It makes me seethe that they haven’t taken any action and they are still supposedly consulting.

"No wonder council officers want to get out with big payments as soon as possible, before the government actually does something about it.

“They have been dragging their heels on this and broken promises to me.

"It will be very interesting to see what the final bill for senior officers packages will be.”

In response to Sir Christopher’s calls for a maximum limit on public sector pay-outs, at the end of last month Liz Truss, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said she hoped to bring plans for a payment cap to parliament.

“The government legislated through the Enterprise Act 2016 for a £95,000 cap on exit payments in the public sector," she said.

“This reform to exit payment compensation requires affirmative regulations to come into force which I plan to consult on before bringing them before Parliament.”

She said a bill on public sector exit payments sponsored by Sir Christopher would only “duplicate” existing legislation and delay its implementation.

Ms Ward was chief executive at Dorset County Council for six years, before throwing her hat into the ring for the top jobs at both the new unitaries.

However, Matt Prosser has been appointed to the rural unitary Dorset Council and Graham Farrant will take up the role at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

The interim chief executive role will be filled by Mike Harries, the current corporate director for environment and economy.