Political blog, April 29

Plenty of people will no doubt be surprised to learn that KCC chief executive Peter Gilroy was able to "sell" untaken leave and receive nearly £12,000 for doing so, as we've reported today.

Read our story here

But it seems the arrangement - which I must confess I knew nothing about - is standard practice for all KCC staff, although the extent to which it happens is unclear. There's the inevitable question of how much more might be added to the authority's wage bill if all its staff opted to do the same, for one thing.

Whether you think it appropriate or not depends on your point of view.

There is an argument that in an organisation as large and complex as KCC, which is constantly responding to and reacting to events, it may not always be possible for the man at the top to take all the leave he is entitled to. Last year was undoubtedly a hectic one for the council (not least because of various inspections taking place).

On the other hand, there may be an argument that in an authority which as well run as KCC, the chief executive ought to be reasonably confident and relaxed that if any crisis broke in his absence, his fellow chief officers would be able to deal with it.

Not only that but I do wonder what kind of message it sends to other employees, who may think that their commitment to their job might be somehow open to question if they have the temerity to take all the holidays they should. Taking leave is usually regarded by employers as desirable for employees in terms of their health and general well-being.

Of course, the disclosure does inevitably bring the spotlight back to the whole issue of how much KCC pays its senior officers, which was the point of the report being discussed at today's policy scrutiny committee meeting.

The meeting made pretty heavy weather of it and other than the fresh information about Mr Gilroy's sale of his untaken leave, there was not much to report. Labour's Derek Smyth tried to push KCC leader Paul Carter to agree with Conservative leader David Cameron's proposal that all public sector staff paid over £150,000 should have all their salary details published. Mr Carter said he agreed "with the direction of travel" - a phrase there should be a law against - but had "certain caveats" about identifying individuals.

Liberal Democrat leader Trudy Dean asked a valid question when she asked how many KCC employees other than chief officers had been recommended for a bonus as a result of their efforts being graded "excellent" by their managers.

She pointed to the fact that statistics showed that just 55 had qualified for such a bonus last year and 53 the year before, saying that proportionately was a much lower figure when compared to the chief officers' group, who were paid

Council leader Paul Carter said KCC had sought to be as open and transparent as it could be about chief officers' pay - a claim that I suspect would not be endorsed by the Taxpayers' Alliance.

Interestingly, it is now abundantly clear that there is a cross-party consensus that politicians need to catch up with public opinion about being more open about the salaries of council chiefs.