The official from Westminster City Council responsible for the Marble Arch Mound project was also the highest-paid local employee, surpassing the chief executive.
Elad Eisenstein was appointed as Oxford Street district improvement director with a salary of £220,000 in October 2020.
His role placed him charge of a £150 million regeneration programme, including the eye-popping tourist attraction.
Mr Eisentstein earned even more than the £217,545 paid to the local authority’s chief executive Stuart Love.
Elad Eisenstein was appointed as Oxford Street district improvement director with a salary of £220,000 in October 2020
The £6million artificial hill was erected next to Marble Arch as a way to lure shoppers back to Oxford Street, following a drop in sh
Marble Arch Mound’s installation in central London has a viewing platform that allows you to view the surrounding area.
Their salaries were revealed in a document outlining the pay of all 179 Westminster City Council workers earning above £68,000 a year.
It is also significantly higher than the £161,401 salary paid to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Mr Eisenstein was also received a generous pension contribution of £24,441.
Eisenstein, who joined the council in 1994 was described as an “expert on cities and regeneration with over two decades’ experience”.
He resigned a year later, after an extremely critical internal review. Costs were described as avoidable’ or ‘devastating’.
It attracted mixed reactions, even from Matthew Highton (Twitter).
Marble Arch Mound Installation at the time that it was opened to the public in July last year
The council’s deputy leader, Conservative Councillor Melvyn Caplan, also resigned following the trebling of the original £2 million set aside for the mound.
The £6million artificial hill was erected next to Marble Arch as a way to lure shoppers back to Oxford Street after 17% of its shops shut following the pandemic, but it received a mixed reception.
It was reported that the hill of 25 metres had been experiencing extreme heat since July 2013, and questions were asked as to whether the extreme heat would continue until the end of the year.
The structure is expected to be demolished in the coming weeks.