PEMBROKESHIRE County Council has had to pay nearly £9,000 to disentangle itself from former chief executive Bryn Parry-Jones’ luxury hire car lease, a county councillor has revealed.

East Williamston councillor Jacob Williams made the revelation about the controversial former chief executive, who left the Authority with a £280,000 golden goodbye, on his own website.

Mr Parry-Jones used a £90,000 hybrid Porsche Panamera as the car he was entitled to lease.

In 2014, Pembrokeshire County Council evaded a BBC journalist’s request under the Freedom of Information Act asking how much Mr Parry-Jones received each month under his council car allowance.

The council initially claimed the figures were in its published accounts.

After this was only found to contain an overall remuneration package, the council later said the details included personal data which would breach his right to privacy.

However, following an appeal by the BBC, the Information Commissioner’s Office concluded the request wasn’t exempted and called on the council to provide the information by February 23 at the latest.

It was ruled the disclosure “could constitute a minor infringement” of privacy to Mr Parry-Jones, but ruled: “the strength of the legitimate interest in disclosure is sufficient to outweigh the privacy rights of the Chief Executive in this instance”.

Bryn Parry-Jones had racked up under-spent ‘credits’ on his previous monthly lease car payments and was able to use these to help pay for the Porsche lease.

Revealing this, the council has claimed, would be an unfair personal disclosure.

However, the ICO said: “The Commissioner’s opinion is that an individual occupying such a prominent position could reasonably expect a degree of public scrutiny into those aspects of their personal life that cross over into their public serving role.”

The cost to terminate the contract for the Porsche has been revealed as £8,669.84 by Cllr Williams.

The termination fee is expected to cover four months’ lease period, or £2,167.46 a month.

Cllr Williams said: “It’s a common sense decision by the ICO that councils must have good reasons to refuse to answer questions about how public money is spent on the salaries and perks of senior staff.

“It shouldn’t be necessary but the council makes that necessary, they need to buck their ideas up.

“Heavy public interest outweighs the possible ramifications, of which there aren’t any, into privacy.”

A spokesman for Pembrokeshire County Council confirmed the termination figure adding there would be no further comment at this stage.