Britain's biggest council fatcat who was paid £607,633 in a single year upon stepping down from his role at the authority is a guitar-playing father-of-two who lives in a £650,000 three-bedroom home, MailOnline can reveal.

James Whiteman, 57, received the huge pay package after taking voluntary redundancy from Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, where he had been managing director, in 2021.

It included a 'termination payment' of £154,240, benefits totalling £5,688 and pension contributions of £339,158.

Mr Whiteman tops the list of highest-paid town hall bosses, compiled by campaign group the TaxPayers' Alliance, which discovered that 2,759 council staff were paid six-figure sums. The group blasted the 'extremely generous pay and perks, including bonuses and golden goodbyes' from councils while 'local people are facing a financial squeeze'.

The father-of-two lives with his family in a modest £650,000 three-bedroom home on a smart estate in Guildford.




Council fatcat James Whiteman is seen outside his home in Guildford, Surrey, this afternoon





Mr Whiteman describes himself as a singer/songwriter and has recorded tunes on SoundCloud





Mr Whiteman - pictured with an unknown woman - is Britain's biggest council fatcat





Mr Whiteman lives in a modest £650,000 three-bedroom home on a smart estate in Guildford

Music is one of his main passions. He describes himself as a singer/songwriter and has recorded a number of tunes on the SoundCloud app.

On his profile, he says that he started playing guitar when he was 13 years old adding: 'As with so many of us, career and family became the priority and I stopped writing over a 30 year period. Now I've retired, I've finally got time to write and record again and I love it!'

During his career as managing director https://soundcloud.com/ of Guildford Borough Council, Mr Whiteman raked in between £150,000 and £170,000 annually.

He was appointed to the post in 2017 but stepped down in 2021 when the authority merged its administrative centre with that of neighbouring Waverley Borough Council and promoted Tom Horwood as the chief executive of both. 

Today, an angry Mr Whiteman returned home from a shopping trip this afternoon with his wife. After parking their Smart car, he declined to comment to MailOnline.







The TaxPayers' Alliance's annual local government 'rich list' found that at least 2,759 town hall staff received more than £100,000 last year

The couple's son and daughter live away from home, in London and Germany respectively.

A source at Guildford Borough Council confirmed to MailOnline today that the hefty £607,633 severance package was paid to Mr Whiteman by both councils and was such a large sum due to him working for Guildford for more than 30 years.

But taxpayers in Guildford reacted with fury today at news of the huge amount of money Mr Whiteman received.

Primary school teacher Gemma Smith, 31, and her electrician husband Andrew, 32, moved to the Surrey commuter town a year ago.

Mother-of-two Mrs Smith said: 'It's a joke to be honest, who gets paid that sort of money? I'm obviously in the wrong job!