CITY of York Council may again offer extra pay to attract candidates for two key positions.

Councillors will be asked on Monday if they will agree to pay 'market supplements' to a new director and an assistant director of adult services.

A report to the Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee said pay at the authority was below market rates for positions holding comparable portfolios of responsibilities, and to attract the highest quality of candidates, the salary must be viewed as competitive.

The report by head of business HR Mark Bennett said the current grade for a director was £88,000 to £102,000.

Independent councillor Mark Warters said the additional pay was unacceptable at a time when frontline service were being cut and Liberal Democrat group leader Keith Aspden said he would be voting against the supplement at Monday's meeting, adding: "Even bearing in mind the responsibility of the director post, we think that the potential of a six-figure salary is more than reasonable.”

Conservative group leader Chris Steward said he had not yet decided which way to vote, saying additional money to attract the right candidate was different to paying existing staff more to dissuade them from leaving.

Labour Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Dafydd Williams, said he 'entirely recognised' that it never felt right to pay more money for people at the top. "But as has been reported several times recently, adult social care is an area of the council under immense pressure and the salary for senior directors in York is well below the going rate for directors of adult social care across the country," he said.

"Given that this service directly affects people's lives, it would mean selling York short if we didn't attract the right person by paying the going rate for the job."