The media is always eager to pounce on ‘town hall fat cats' and John Prescott warned councils to ‘cool it' on chief executives' pay after Bradford advertised a £200k package.

The MJ's own objective story on salaries earlier this year was translated into headlines about ‘Greedy Burghers' in the News of the World. The Deputy Prime Minister, who earns £128k a year for helping to run the country, might well have cast an envious eye over Mike Pitt's £180k for running Kent CC. But the annual survey by our sister publication Municipal Year Book suggests that money is not the prime motivation for the people filling the top spot at town halls. This message is reinforced by the fact that Bradford still hasn't managed to fill that £200k vacancy.