More than £200,000 has been spent by North Somerset Council on redundancy payments in 18 months.

The authority has paid out £261,101.88 in 12 compromise agreements since April 2016.

Compromise agreements can include confidentiality clauses and usually relate to situations where an employee leaves following redundancy or a workplace issue.

Figures show last year, pay-offs went up by more than 80 per cent on the 2016 totals. The majority of settlements – around £203,000 – related to redundancies.

In 2016-17 the council paid £28,496 in settlement agreements, but it increased to £147,605.88 last year.

Since April, the authority has paid out a total of £85,000.

A North Somerset Council spokesman said: “We follow the ACAS code of practice in relation to these settlement agreements.

“We have very good employee relationships and as the figures in the Freedom of Information response show, the vast majority of payments relate to when someone is made redundant.”