THE leader of Worcestershire County Council has revealed his reasons for not 'sharing' or even going without a chief executive - saying it would be wrong for a politician to have so much power.

Councillor Adrian Hardman says unlike an increasing number of town halls around the country, his authority will never be without a top boss under his leadership.

As your Worcester News revealed on Friday, a new 'town hall rich list' has been published showing 18 council workers in Worcestershire were paid more than £100,000 last year.

It included eight county council workers, two of whom were on less basic pay than six figures but crossed the threshold after getting redundancy pay.

Current chief executive Clare Marchant is on £151,000 per year, and only took over in June after Trish Haines retired.

At the time the Conservative leadership did briefly consider sharing a chief executive, but privately decided against it.

Cllr Hardman has now told your Worcester News he thinks the idea would be "nuts".

"Some councils have moved in this direction but I think actually looking after the delivery of services is quite different from democratic accountability," he said.

"It also puts a lot of responsibility and power into the hands of one politician.

"In some councils you might have a leader who is quite a capable of doing it himself, but not all.

"Here in Worcestershire we're quite fortunate to have young, talented people around the leadership but that's not the case everywhere."

He said making the change could also prove risky as leaders do change and in some upper tier councils, it is not uncommon to have politicians leading them in their 70s.

Tory-controlled Wiltshire Council went without a chief executive completely in 2011, leaving more responsibility in the hands of its directors and political leadership.

Rugby Council then did the same, and more locally district councils in Wychavon and Malvern are considering sharing one between them.

Cllr Hardman also says he does not see any further reductions in the number of County Hall directors, which now stands at four.

The current quartet of directors all earn more than £100,000 a year in basic pay, down from five one year ago.

"There comes a point where it's difficult to make more serious squeezes," he said.