The director responsible for the Marble Arch Mound was Westminster City Council’s highest paid official last year, before his resignation amid criticism of the embattled tourist attraction.
Elad Eisenstein, who was also tasked with overseeing Oxford Street’s £150m revamp, was on £220,000 a year – more than the council’s chief executive – before he left the role in autumn 2021.
The figure was published in Westminster’s annual statement on its top earners. CEO Stuart Love’s salary was £217,500.
Councillors saw the projected cost of the Mound spiral from £2m to £6m before Eisenstein’s exit, which was revealed by EG in October.
It has cost the council £150,000 a month to keep the attraction open. It closes to the public next week.
The rising costs, caused by the decision to stop charging visitors for entry, also forced the resignation of deputy council leader Melvyn Caplan last summer.
Decommissioning the Mound will begin on 10 January and will take around four months.
The news comes ahead of local council elections in May, in which the Conservative Party will campaign to retain control of the local authority.
Labour councillor Paul Dimoldenberg said council leader Rachael Robathan should “explain why she signed off on such an enormous salary”.
He added that councillors should “apologise to the people of Westminster” for the cost of the project to the taxpayer.
A Westminster City Council spokesperson told EG the job had been “a one-off role for a specific and complex project… The package reflected the industry standard for the specialist skills required”.
They added: “Westminster City Council is a high-profile local authority with unique responsibilities at the heart of the capital.
“As such, we need to recruit the best talent for managing within a complex organisation whose work involves partnership with central government, the multi-billion-pound economy of the West End and 260,000 residents.
“The Mound has done what it was built to do – drawn crowds and supported the recovery in this part of London. We are really pleased that over 242,000 people have visited the Mound and the terrific light exhibition inside.”
Last year, a report into the Mound found a slew of management failures and a deliberate attempt to conceal its rising costs from council members.
The internal review said the council’s normal checks and measures to ensure projects ran smoothly were “circumvented” in an attempt to deliver the Mound on time and hide the actual costs of the project.
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