THE number of Scottish Borders Council staff earning £50,000 a year or more increased from 115 to 125 in the last financial year.

And the top 13 senior employees at Newtown received total remuneration of £1.002m – up from £989,000 the previous year.

The figures are revealed in the council’s 2016/17 draft annual accounts which will be presented to this week’s meeting of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee.

The top earner was chief executive Tracey Logan whose £133,017 pay included £9,173 for her role as Returning Officer at two elections and as Counting Officer at the EU referendum in June last year.

Ms Logan’s total remuneration was further boosted to £145,910 when “benefits other than cash” of £12,893 were taken into account. Her total remuneration in 2015/16 was £127,437.

Other top earners included former depute chief executive Jeanette McDiarmid (£105,818), corporate transformation and services director Rob Dickson (£109,704) and chief financial officer David Robertson (£86,565).

In his commentary on the draft accounts, which runs to 107 pages, Mr Robertson states: “The operating environment for the council continues to be challenging with financial and economic influences such as increasing demands on services, reducing Scottish Government funding, low interest rates and cost pressures from pay and price inflation all affecting the council’s finances. 

The council, despite these challenges, remains financially sound and well placed to serve the people of the Scottish Borders in the future.”

The accounts show that the council again achieved a small underspend on its annual revenue budget.

In 2016/17 an underspend of £128,000, or 0.05 per cent, was recorded on a total agreed revenue budget of £261.6m. It is the fifth successive year that the books have closed marginally in the black with revenue underspends of 0.48 per cent, 0.16 per cent, 0.18 per cent and 0.30 per cent of revenue spending achieved in the previous four years.

In her foreword to the accounts, Councillor Shona Haslam, SBC’s new Conservative leader, presents a series of “highlights” from the year.

“Against a very difficult financial background, the council has achieved a great deal during 2016/17: it signed a 13-year-contract with CGI to establish a digital services partnership; achieved £8.9m of financial plan savings on a permanent recurring basis; delivered £261.6m of revenue spending within budget; delivered capital investment of £51.5m in schools, flood protection, roads, lighting and other assets; and supported a successful first year operation of the new integrated sport and culture trust [Live Borders].”

However, the accounts reveal that the council’s external debt rose by 12.1 per cent over the year and, at March 31, stood at £197m.

Servicing that debt cost £11.8m over the year with a 6.2 per cent average rate of interest charged.

The cost of giving early retirement/voluntary severance packages to council staff was £430,745 in 2016/17 when 23 exit deals were agreed.

In the previous financial year, the council offloaded 71 staff members at a cost of £2.2m.

The accounts note that the council will this year pay £8.6m in annual charges, including interest, for the three secondary schools – at Earlston, Duns and Eyemouth – which were built under a private finance initiative (PFI). The total amount still to pay over the next 21 years is £229.9m, comprising annual charges and interest.

Under “significant trading operations”, the accounts note that SBC Contracts, which employs 42 manual workers and 14 management and support staff, made a surplus of £328,000 on a turnover of £18.37 last year.

On her council’s plans for the current financial year, Councillor Haslam states: “The council has committed to an ambitious corporate transformation programme to deliver service improvements and savings.

“These will make the council and its services sustainable within the reducing resource environment of the public sector.”