DEVON'S top civil servant is to take a 5 per cent pay cut – putting his salary a fraction under a £150,000-a-year limit that would require him to justify his pay to ministers.

Dr Phil Norrey, chief executive of Devon County Council, is currently paid £157,000 a year. That will fall to £149,000 once his reduction kicks in – a fraction below the "fat cat threshold" set by Gordon Brown as the level above which public sector workers would have to justify their pay.

Elected councillors at the authority are also set to take a voluntary allowance freeze as they seek to show solidarity with residents who are feeling the economic squeeze.

Dr Norrey said of his pay cut: "This is a small sacrifice in the context of what many people are having to suffer but I believe it is important to demonstrate restraint."

Yesterday, a taxpayers' campaign group welcomed the council proposals as a "step in the right direction" and said it was the first evidence the Government clampdown was starting to take effect.

Mark Wallace, campaign director for the TaxPayers' Alliance, welcomed the moves.

He said: "It's good news for taxpayers that the chief executive has seen sense and taken a pay cut.

"It would be nice if it was a larger one, but compared to some of his fellow chief executives' hefty pay rises, this makes a nice change.

"It's the first sign that the new threshold, above which approval is required, is starting to have an impact."

Gordon Brown announced in December that public sector workers would need ministerial approval to take their pay above more than £150,000.

Amid recession-related anger at civil servant pay packets, he said some officials had "lost touch with reality".

The members' freeze will be discussed at a meeting of Devon County Council's cabinet on Wednesday.

It will make up part of discussions over the proposed budget, which has yet to be published.

Council leader John Hart said yesterday that priorities would include keeping council tax as low as possible, education, and support and protection for vulnerable people.

The Conservative leader swept to victory in June, when he immediately started to slash administrative costs, including a freeze on councillors' allowances and cuts to special responsibility payments.

Coun Hart and his deputy, John Clatworthy, both reverted to the rate their positions were paid in 2005.

Coun Hart has also frozen job recruitment across the council and cut red tape.

He said: "I am very well aware of the fragile nature of the recovery in Devon and nationally.

"And I do not believe it would be right to ask the county's council tax payers for a penny more than is necessary – especially not to fund a pay rise for politicians.

"It is also quite possible that, after the General Election, our staff might be asked to take a pay freeze for a year and I am adamant that they won't be asked to do anything that we are not prepared to do.

"I want us to lead by example and demonstrate to people across Devon that we are here to serve them."