Wardens told take pay cut or leave
Monday 26th January 2009, 11:29AM GMT.
Ten crime-busting neighbourhood wardens in Wolverhampton have been offered redundancy packages in the latest round of council job cuts, it emerged today.
They have been told to accept the redundancy or apply to stay on and take a pay cut of around £7,000.
Of the 16 wardens currently on the books, 10 are on senior rates while another six are on junior rates believed to be several thousand pounds a year less.
Council bosses say the cuts are to save money in the short-term by offering the pay cut the 10 highest earners. The plan is then to increase the number of street wardens to 30 in six months but the new recruits will be on the lower wage.
The senior wardens are more experienced at the job and are involved in training the junior workers. The wardens are currently based in several locations around the city, such as Heath Town and Graiseley, where they assist police in cutting crime and anti-social behaviour.
They patrol their neighbourhoods and pass on information from the public to the police and can hand out £60 spot fines for littering and graffiti. Labour councillor Phil Page, who represents Bilston North, said: “I think it’s terrible. It’s a kick in the teeth for the senior wardens who work very hard for our communities.”
Shirley Oates, spokeswoman for Whitmore Reans residents, said today: “I am furious that they are threatening to sacrifice the senior wardens. They are the very people we must keep because they have the experience to do the job.”
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what happened to the uselss PCSOs?
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Why should a number of wardens be on a much higher wage than the rest of them. My understanding is that their responsibilities are being reduced, therefore so should their wage. Socialist Phil Page should understand this concept!
At a time when people are losing their jobs left, right and centre, they are lucky that they are being offered proper contracts (something that they haven’t had for a while). The previous administation in Wolverhampton didn’t offer them that luxury and that is why the numbers had diminished so much.
FACT: Wolverhampton Council MUST make massive savings as Councillor Page and his motley crew have bled the City’s finances dry!
FACT: The current coalition is INCREASING the number of wardens on the streets of Wolverhampton whilst still making all the possible savings that they can.
FACT: I am sick of Councillor Page whinging about the wardens in the Express & Star and I for one will be glad when he is up for re-election and I get to vote for his opposite number.
Disgrunled Bilstonite
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So they have to re-apply for a job on £7k less.
That would suggest they’re massively overpaid at the moment. Yet more Nu Labour waste during the good times coming to bite us now.
There’s so much fat to cut out of the public sector, it’s difficult to know where to start. This seems like a good place….but there must be so much more.
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Why don’t Wolverhampton Council pay Special Constables? We could pay the wages of 100 Specials to each work a 20-hour week (at a very generous £11-an-hour) and it would cost less than £1.2m a year.
One Special has more legislative power to combat crime than an army of wardens and PCSOs combined.
Why on earth these civilians in peaked caps were ever employed I haven’t the faintest idea. Complete waste of time and money.
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Noorder, whose world do you live in? Since when have a City Council ever run a “police force”? Only a socialist would want a police state!
Think about what you have said. Who is going to manage and supervise these officers and how much will it cost?
Who is going to train and pay to insure these officers and how much will it cost?
Who is going to pay for the transport and equipment of these officers and how much will it cost?
Where would we build a new state of the art police station with an increased capacity enough to house, say, 100 extra constables. Who is going to pay for it and how much will it cost?
Therefore the £1.2 million that you calculated is likely to be closer to £5 million
I suspect that you are a Labour activist in some light because yet again, your suggestion would cost the taxpayer. Have you not yet realised that the taxpayer has no money. The council has no money……Christ, even the country has NO MONEY!!!
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