Hadleigh tax-payers will be stumping up an extra £6.95 an hour, an additional £257.15 per week, for their town clerk's wages, backdated to January 4.

The post is currently held by Wendy Brame and the massive pay increase is a combination of an annual rise and for doing some of the work which used to be done by the town council manager.

Councillors agreed in a confidential session on Wednesday, by a majority vote, to approve the increases.

It is understood this has led to a certain amount of discontentment among other staff members, none of which will be receiving any financial uplift, for the spell since Cheryl Tye was off sick and then subsequently resigned as Hadleigh's town council manager.

A person close to the staff with knowledge of the matter contacted Hadleigh Nub News and agreed to be quoted on condition their identity was protected to prevent any collateral backlash.

"This is frankly unbelievable," Nub News was told. "While it could be fair too share Wendy (Brame) has worked hard, other staff have had to pick up the slack left by her as she has been covering Cheryl's work.

"She still only works her contracted hours, so how is she now worth an extra £300 [actually £257.15] a week, either she wasn't doing a full shift before, or Cheryl's role was not as demanding as it was made out.

"The mayor does spend a lot of time in the office but it appears he is totally oblivious to the reality of what is going on, not just now but for a quite a long period previously."

Hadleigh mayor Gordon McLeod refused to talk specifically about the figures agreed, although confirmed: "We did indeed look at suitable recompense for the town clerk for all the extra work and responsibility she has undertaken since the town council's absence began.

"Full council had at a previous meeting approved making her the Responsible Financial Officer and Proper Officer, duties not previously in her job description, and in those circumstances additional pay is entirely justified.

"Since no other Hadleigh town council employee has undertaken such significant extra responsibilities since the town council manager's absence began, no further measures were brought to full council for consideration."

The decision is likely to be reviewed by a national body at the end of the month as part of a national financial check.

Council employee salaries are a matter of public record and questions have been asked why the staffing matters were being discussed in secret, when government guideline make clear local authorities should be open and transparent in how council tax players money is spent.

Data, freely available on the council's website, showed Hadleigh tax-payers paid council staff £8,130.11 (including two hours overtime) for the month of March.

The council also paid £2,708.40 in PAYE contributions and £3,105.75 into the employees' pension funds.

On top of that the council agreed to pay a Norwich based HR company a total of £1,450 (including VAT) for consultancy HR work carried out in February, although £297, is to be recharged to HMFC.

A previous version of this article stated that Wendy Brame was given a "pay rise of nearly £300 a week". This was misleading; Mrs Brame's actual salary increase was equivalent to an additional £257.15 per week. This correction has been published following an upheld ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organisation