HAMPSHIRE County Council’s controversial plans to appoint a high-paid “broadband tsar” have been put on hold.

County chiefs decided last February to recruit a broadband project director to spearhead the area’s bid for superfast Internet.

The appointment came under fire from unions and Liberal Democrat opposition councillors who said there were higher priorities for council cash at a time when frontline services for the young, old and disabled have been cut.

The project director would have earned a salary of up to £83,052 and if a pension was paid on top, the employer contributions would have taken the package to an estimated £98,915.

The council has refused to say if a pension or other benefits were part of the package.

Liberal Democrat opposition leader Councillor Keith House said: “The broadband tsar was always a grandiose and expensive appointment in these harsh financial times.”

Now Conservative council leader Ken Thornber has admitted there are “no plans at the moment to progress with recruitment” of the broadband project director.

He refused to clarify if the senior executive post was temporarily on hold or had been shelved altogether.

However, he said the local authority had not changed its plans regarding faster broadband in the area.

The council is still planning to meet with Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) to discuss its bid for government cash to help improve Internet access after missing out on the first round of funding.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport chose to award a combined £50m to Norfolk, Wiltshire, Devon and Somerset.

Cllr Thornber said: “Following the Government’s announcement and the positive feedback for Hampshire, the county council’s priority is to work with BDUK to secure the funds for this important project.

“There are no plans at the moment to progress with recruitment (of the project director) but if we do it would be through an internal appointment and there would be little, or no, additional costs.”

This could mean redeploying a senior manager whose job had been axed.

The county council is shedding 1,200 jobs, including 150 managers, as part of plans to save £55m this financial year.

Despite the budget cuts, the Cabinet earmarked £193,000 per year for the two-year broadband project.

The sum included the pay package of the project director, a more junior officer and £30,000 project development costs.

The local authority already has an “e-Hampshire” project manager leading a campaign encouraging suppliers to bring broadband to rural parts of the county who helped prepare the bid for government cash alongside his other work.

Currently, the provision of broadband is patchy. More than 400 small towns and villages have poor service or no broadband coverage at all.