Councillors have this evening agreed a pay off for under-fire chief executive Bryn Parry-Jones. The decision was made in private by 29 votes for to 23 against.

Members debated for several hours before it was agreed to offer a deal - the details of which have not yet been released.

However, an amount in the region of £330,000 is understood to be correct  

Earlier, 30 councillors to 24 voted in favour of holding discussions in private because of the risk of disclosing legally privileged information and upholding employment rules.

A number of councillors argued strongly in favour of holding the discussion in public with Cllr Paul Miller highlighting the fact it is public money – not budgeted for during a time of cuts – which will be used to make any severance payment to Mr Parry-Jones.

“We are about to discuss the settlement at significant cost to the authority and this is public money we are talking about here. It’s a matter of public interest.

“It’s absolutely not right to exclude the public from that debate.”

Cllr Bob Kilmister added: "There’s a huge amount of public interest out there. It’s a big decision that has to be made, it should be open to press and public because that’s what democracy is all about.”

Members also argued that not all areas of the discussion would be legally privileged information so at least some of the debate could be in public but monitoring officer Lawrence Harding said it would be difficult to identify when legal advice would be required.

Bryn Parry-Jones has been working from home for several weeks following a series of high-profile controversies at County Hall.

 Further details will follow on Friday and in the Western Telegraph on Wednesday. 

UPDATE Friday morning: How did your councillor vote? Click here.