Dudley Council’s former chief executive trousered £80k for a golden goodbye when he left the authority in September 2024.

The authority’s latest set of published accounts covering the 2024/25 financial year show Kevin O’Keefe collected a total of £207,000 for the year after his departure was revealed in July 2024.

Apart from his termination payment Mr O’Keefe, who was 59 when his departure was confirmed, collected £104,000 in salary and expenses plus £23,000 in pension contributions.

The figures show the highest earner for the year was Mr O’Keefe’s successor, Balvinder Heran, who took over as interim chief in October 2024 and received a total of £220,000 for the financial year which was a salary and allowances of £180,000 plus £40,000 into her pension pot.

Overall Dudley shelled out £491,000 in exit packages for staff leaving the council in 2024/25 much less than the £2.4m it paid out the previous year.

Accounts show the council was paying top dollar to temporary staff as well as its full-time employees. The role of programme director, an agency role which was on an interim contract from 8 August to 28 February, cost taxpayers £142,000.

Another interim job at the council which came with a healthy reward was acting director of children’s services.

The role was created on 1 July and by 31 March 2025 the post holder had picked up a salary and allowances of £141,000 plus £31,000 towards their pension.

Adult social care is always a big bill for the council and the departure of its director on the last day of 2024 cost Dudley a total of £181,000 which included salary and allowances worth £118,000, a pension contribution of £26,000 and a termination payment of £37,000.

An interim replacement in adult social care started on 27 January and attracted a salary and fees worth £86,000 plus £19,000 in their pension pot, making the total cost to the people of Dudley for the director role in the financial year a whopping £286,000.