Council worker emigrates 10,000 miles to Australia... but keeps his job in Cambridgeshire

When Mat Taylor heads off with his family for a new life Down Under, he will leave many precious things behind.
His £100,000-a-year council job, however, will be travelling with them.
Mr Taylor, 44, is to continue working for the local authority as its finance chief despite emigrating 10,000 miles away.
Under the extraordinary deal, Fenland District Council in Cambridgeshire is paying Mr Taylor for one day’s work a week – which works out, prorata at £20,000 a year.
He will continue to manage the council’s annual £18million budget and help any replacement ease into the role via video link and email, despite being in Adelaide with an eight-and-a-half hour time difference.
The details have emerged a few weeks after Suffolk County Council chief executive Andrea Hill – who earns £220,000, £30,000 more than the Prime Minister – claimed town hall bureaucrats deserved large salaries because their jobs were so ‘high risk’.
Mr Taylor, who is due to move in October after serving three months’ notice, yesterday defended the deal, insisting it was ‘difficult to replace a senior person straight away’.
He added: ‘We are trying to come up with an arrangement that does not cost too much money.
‘It seemed more sensible to keep my experience on board, rather than spend a lot of money on someone who had no knowledge of the workings of the council.’
But the TaxPayers’ Alliance said the plan was ludicrous.

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