THE salary which has been advertised for a new council digital guru role has been slammed as ‘scandalous’.

But Blackburn with Darwen Council has defended the post, which offers a wage of up to £94,000 a year, and said it would ‘make a real difference to how services are delivered.’

Website, The MJ Jobs, features the advert for the new job entitled Director of Digital and Business Change.

And the job advert said the new role is needed to ‘create the capacity and input we need to drive fundamental change across the council’.

It said the director’s task will be to ‘deliver a joined up, digitally enabled council, with services fully accessible to our residents through a channel of their choosing.’

Conservative Konrad Tapp, Blackburn with Darwen councillor, described the salary as ‘scandalous’.

Cllr Tapp said: “The council is always going on about how it’s got to make cuts and put up taxes, so I don’t think it’s a good time to be advertising a job at such a high salary. This is scandalous.”

Fellow Conservative Paul Marrow, who represents the Livesey with Pleasington ward, said: “This salary is too high for me.

“I’d also be concerned that the council needs to have a public face, as people want to see a human being, now some automated system.”

Cllr David Foster, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, said: “The council needs to take a different approach to salaries and recognise ways of saving money.

“This role would be justified it it resulted in a significant amount of savings being made, through more things being done online and employing few people to shuffle paper.”

But Harry Catherall, chief executive of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “We know that it is vital that we constantly adapt and modernise. The right level of expertise and leadership helps to ensure we can deliver high quality and value for money services.

“These types of roles are in demand across the country as a result and can command salaries well in excess of those offered by councils similar to us.

“We would encourage anybody who wants to make a real difference to how services are delivered in Blackburn and Darwen to apply.”