South Lakeland District Council's director of finance returned to work this week in the wake of the report into the introduction of the authority's controversial pay and grading structure.

It was confirmed that Jack Jones was back at work on Monday. His return had been unopposed by local government expert Rodney Brooke, who was brought in by SLDC to investigate the role played by Mr Jones and the chief executive Philip Cunliffe in the adoption of the pay and grading structure.

SLDC acting chief executive Mike Jones said: "Mr (Jack) Jones returned to work on Monday this week and he's doing that on a phased basis.

"We are delighted to see him back and I can say already he's making a significant contribution."

Mike Jones said that negotiations with Philip Cunliffe about his possible retirement were continuing, and he hoped they would be resolved as quickly as possible.

The news follows the report by Rodney Brooke, a copy of which was obtained by The Westmorland Gazette, in which he cleared Mr Cunliffe of any misconduct connected to the pay and grading structure, but recommended that early retirement should be explored.

Mr Brooke found that Jack Jones had been guilty of misconduct, but said he came to that conclusion with some reluctance, and that the director of finance had "approached the matter conscientiously". He recommended no disciplin-ary action be taken.

Both officers had been suspended since last April, after it emerged the annual costs of the structure would have reached £1.6 million by 2009, or £1 million more than originally estimated.

This week Mike Jones stood by an email he distributed to everyone at SLDC, stating that although the report had been "leaked" it did not mean that staff or councillors could discuss the matter in public, even though it could cause difficulties when dealing with questions from close friends or members of the public.

An SLDC staff member, who passed the Gazette a copy of the email, said that the report was now in the public domain, and that everyone else in South Lakeland was talking about it.

The staff member, who asked not to be named, said morale was low in the organisation, and staff were looking for new jobs.

However, Mr Jones said the authority had not put the report in the public domain, and that it was important that staff did not talk about it, as it was possible that SLDC could be sued.

He disagreed that morale was poor, and said SLDC had one of the lowest turnovers of staff among UK councils.

Meanwhile, branch secretary of the South Lakeland Unison union Vivienne Procter said she wanted to counteract any misunderstanding that 80 per cent of staff at SLDC had received large pay increases.

Mr Brooke's report said that if the pay and grading structure had gone ahead as agreed, 80 per cent of employees would have gained.

Mrs Procter said that what staff had actually signed up to was an agreement under which 18 per cent of posts would be on higher salary grades, 16 per cent to be on lower grades, and 66 per cent to stay the same.

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