MORE than quarter of a million pounds is set to be taken from Caerphilly council’s reserves to pay three chief officers awaiting a criminal trial.

Members of the local authority met at a full council meeting yesterday and agreed with a report’s recommendations to extend the contract of its interim chief executive for another year.

Chris Burns’ appointment in August last year came as a knock-on effect of three senior officials being suspended after pay rises of up to 20 per cent were made to top council officers.

Chief executive Michael Anthony O'Sullivan, deputy chief executive Nigel Barnett, along with head of legal services Daniel Perkins, are each on bail charged with misconduct in public office between June 1, 2012 and October, 10, 2012.

The three, who are now expected to face trial at Bristol Crown Court in November, are charged with preventing proper scrutiny of the senior officer pay award.

As well as extending the contract of Mr Burns until August next year, members also agree with a request to approve a further provision to be funded from General Fund balances of £278,000 to cover the anticipated additional costs of the three suspended officers to August 31, 2016.

The report said: “It is now clear that interim arrangements will need to continue for a further period of time. A provisional date for the main court hearing has been set for November 2015, but there is always the possibility that this could slip to a later date. The case itself is likely to take 6-8 weeks when it is convened.

“Whatever the outcome of the court case, there is an inevitability of internal investigations that have been on hold pending the criminal investigation.”

Cllr Colin Mann, leader of the Plaid Cymru group on Caerphilly council, supported the extension of the contract of the interim chief executive, but said: “The cost of the chief officers’ unlawful pay scandal will continue to have a serious financial impact on the council until at least August 2016.

“If this unlawful pay deal had not been pushed through by Labour, millions of pounds would have been available to spend on maintaining frontline services.’’

A Labour group spokesman responded by saying they are “equally concerned about the delay in the legal process and the consequent financial implications”.

He added: “But there is a contractual obligation on our council to continue to pay the suspended officers.

“The leader of the council and the chair of the council's Investigation and Disciplinary Committee have sent a joint letter to the Crown Prosecution Service expressing their concerns about the delays.

“Cllr Mann is yet again acting hypocritically in masking this complaint. His deputy was a member of the Senior Officers' Remuneration Panel and by his own admission did not vote against the pay rise in 2012. Furthermore, that rise was rescinded in January 2013.”