TWO new district council staff members have been employed on individual salaries of over £98,000.

Councillors at South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of White Horse District Council considered, at the end of June, applications for two vacant jobs: the interim head of development and regeneration and interim head of corporate services.

The two councils share all of their back office staff as a cost saving measure.

The posts will see new recruit starting at the councils next week, on salaries of £98,314.

James Carpenter has been appointed as the interim head of corporate services.

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According to the councils, Mr Carpenter joins them from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, having worked across the public, private and voluntary sectors.

He started his career in planning, but has also worked in customer service, IT transformation, service delivery redesign and culture change.

READ AGAIN about when the two 98k jobs were first being discussed

Emily Cockle has been appointed as interim head of development and regeneration, and joins the council from property consultants Ridge and Partners.

Before this Ms Cockle worked in local authority roles in housing, economic development and regeneration in London and the South East.

She is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, a professional member of the Institute of Economic Development and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is a Fellow of the Institute of Place Management.