A 'golden handshake' of almost £140,000 was handed to an outgoing admin boss while the council continues to make multi-million pound cuts to public services.

Steve Mayner, the deputy director of administration, has been awarded a £139,766 severance payment after he was made redundant in the latest wave of cuts to council bureaucracy.

The council has been heavily criticised for dishing out huge lump-sums while in the midst of cutting £43m more from its budget.

Last year it was revealed the outgoing housing chief Roy Evans was awarded more than £150,000.

Councillor Rex Osborn, leader of the Wandsworth Labour Group, said: "There seems to be no way of derailing the Wandsworth gravy train. Yet another highly paid officer is walking off into the sunset with a six figure golden handshake, at a time when frontline services are being cut.

"If just one of these payouts had been saved, it would have paid to keep lollipop men and women outside our schools for another year.

Wandsworth Times:

Rex Osborn described it as a 'waste'

"What’s most galling is that almost £60,000 of the £140,000 payout is discretionary. That means that the Council had no contractual obligation - and yet they still chose to waste £60,000 of local residents’ money on a bonus for a member of staff who is already leaving the council with a very healthy pension."

A spokesman for the council said: "The council is carrying out a major reorganisation which has already saved taxpayers £85m.

"We are trying to achieve savings without reducing frontline services, and where redundancies are necessary, regardless of how junior or senior a member of staff is, severance is calculated in exactly the same way."