Leisure and Culture Dundee chief handed rise on six-figure salary as senior council staff pay revealed

The head of Leisure and Culture Dundee was among senior council employees earning over £100k who received a pay rise last year.

Judy Dobbie, who is the director of the service responsible for facilities including the beleaguered Olympia Centre, was paid £120,850 over the course of the 2023/24 financial year.

This is a six per cent increase on the £113,969 she was paid in the previous 12 months.

The salary was revealed in a new report which has gone before the council’s scrutiny committee.

It was published during the same week a public consultation on plans to shut three visitor attractions run by Leisure and Culture Dundee came to an end.

The Caird Park golf courses, Broughty Castle, and the Mills Observatory are all facing closure under plans to save around half-a-million pounds each year.

Falling visitor numbers and rising costs are among the reasons behind the closure proposals.

Olympia plagued by closures

LACD is also responsible for the running of the Dundee’s flagship leisure facility, the Olympia.

Between April 6 2023 and April 5 2024 – the last financial year – the pools at the centre were out of operation for a total of 347 days.

The entire facility had been shut since October 2021 for essential repairs to be carried out and eventually reopened in December 2023.

But less than two months later, the leisure and toddler pools were shut once more after fresh maintained problems arose.

The latest problems were not linked to the £6m maintenance.

What do other council employees earn?

The report which went before the scrutiny committee also detailed the salaries of other senior council employees.

The council is required to make the salaries of its most senior staff members and councillors public each year.

The highest paid council employee was chief executive Greg Colgan, who took home £170,049 in 2023/24. This includes a £1,642 remuneration for election duties.

Mr Colgan was paid £160,442 in 2022/23.

It was also detailed that four senior council officials earned £135,763 in 2023/24.

These were:

• Robert Emmott – executive director of corporate services and S95 officer
• Audrey May – executive director of children and families
• Robin Presswood – executive director of city development
• Elaine Zwirlein – executive director of neighbourhood services

This is also a rise on the previous year’s salary.