Senior social worker Bill Alexander has been appointed chief operating officer after councillors controversially agreed to set aside up to £25,000 to pay for an existing member of staff to be temporarily promoted to the job.

The decision prompted an outcry from unions, the public and a handful of councillors and yesterday Mr Alexander, who already earns £72,000 a year, announced he would not accept the increase which would have taken his salary to £90,000.

"I have been brought in to help manage the current situation and help us move forward and manage the current budget situation. It would be perverse if my very first action was to add to the council's financial difficulties," he said.

"I am a fairly well paid local government official and better paid than most people out there. I believe my current salary is appropriate to do the job."

Over the next six months Mr Alexander will step aside from his role as head of children's services to help ease the workload of social work director Harriet Dempster.

Among other things the move will allow Ms Dempster, who gets paid £105,450, more time to attend meetings in her additional role as president of the Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW).

In his new post Mr Alexander will have the job of trying to manage the department's budget which is currently overspent by £3.9 million.

"We have a very significant budget challenge just now and that is not something we can walk away from," he explained.

"In the short term we have to be as efficient as possible with the money we have.

"We are already spending money we do not have and we cannot continue to do that."

Mr Alexander said it was not an option to cut services to people who needed them but warned: "The money is not there for new, additional or extra services."

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