Fat cats want the cream AND the milk!

Can’t say I’m shocked by the number of Local Government officers commanding ridiculous salaries . However, I’m saddened that these obscene amounts of money paid out really do take away from the grass roots of public spending. Here in Wrexham we had the bizarre situation of forking out for numerous Strategic Directors, not one of which even paid the Authority the courtesy of actually living within it. Consequently somewhere in the region of £500,000 flowed out of the county every year without a single penny of it returning via Council Tax. They even received a free parking space each!

Certain officers could then expect to boost the income with certain ‘add ons’ that almost come as part of the job. Being a Chief Returning Officer increases the basic pay with a very handy extra £18,000 pa and appointment as a Clerk to an Authority such as the Fire or Police Authorities would also add a minimum of the same amount again.

When some of us would question the amounts paid for these luxuries we’d be told the usual mantra, ‘that’s what they could command in the private sector’. Not sure if that’s true, but certainly those in the private sector are held far more accountable for their failures. Indeed the ‘exit door’ is shown far more often to those in the private sector when they fail to achieve improvements and targets. Strange thing is, whenever our Authority looked for savings cuts (and that’s annually under the LibDem Alliance), it’s the folks at the sharp end delivering services to customers who fear for their livelihood. Somehow the fat cats always know they are safe!


nick