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Council bosses in pay bonanza
Tuesday 14th July 2009, 11:30AM BST.
The number of workers at Wolverhampton City Council being paid salaries of £70,000 to £90,000 has more than doubled, according to accounts revealed today.
And the number on salaries of £50,000 or more has risen by 45 in the last year to a total of 174. Meanwhile the bill for spin and publicity rose to £1.6 million.
The leap in big earners comes despite the last financial year being one of the toughest in the council’s recent history, with £40 million of budget cuts on the way including shedding potentially hundreds of lower paid jobs, shutting a care home and raising leisure centre charges by 10 per cent.
The findings, obtained today after the books were opened to the public for a two-week inspection period, show:
* The number of people being paid £70,000 to £90,000 rose from 16 to 37
* Overall numbers of people employed by the council dropped by 186 in the last year, to 12,465 workers.
* The council borrowed £105m last year and will borrow around £91m this year.
* Spending on spin and publicity increased by almost £200,000 to £1.6m.
* The value of the council’s assests has dropped by £35m.
Some £250m was spent on providing services such as bin collections and street cleaning, of which £90m was generated from council tax.
The council has been led by a Tory Lib-Dem alliance since May 2008. Today Conservative finance chief Councillor Wendy Thompson defended the spending but pledged any areas of concern would be investigated. “Many of the rises are because of teachers getting national pay awards,” she said. “We realise salaries is an issue and are determined to deliver value for money.”
The number of high earners was today described as “outrageous” by the opposition Labour group. The top earner is chief executive Richard Carr on £ 136,000.
Councillor Wendy Thompson, cabinet member for finance, said: “There was a national pay award for teaching staff of 2.5 per cent which we could do nothing about, and that has affected the figures.
“In areas like IT, we are competing against other authorities for people with real expertise, so that would also explain some of it. We will obviously look into this because of course it’s an issue, people want to know highly paid staff are productive.”
Councillor Andrew Johnson, Labour group spokesman for finance, said: “It is outrageous that they, whilst making huge cuts in front line services and making lower paid staff redundant, see fit to dramatically increase the number of the high earners on the council’s pay roll.”
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Can I work there?
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There are a few worrying things in this article:
- That council staff includes 12,465 workers. That is a lot of people arranging for bins to be collected. Council tax, voting and other bureaucracy can be done online. There is no need for such a ridiculous number.
- The council borrowed £105m last year and will borrow around £91m this year. So the current size and expense of our council is too expensive and unsustainable. This needs to be curbed. Live within your means.
- The people at the top are giving themselves more money, while those at the bottom are made redundant. That is unfair. Champagne socialism.
- The described as opposition Labour group have overseen this council for more than 10 years. So who do they think is responsible for this “outrageous” situation? The incumbent Tories have been in power since May 08. At least the numbers are now coming down- not going up.
Our council is clearly too big, too inefficient and too expensive. They need to work a bit smarter and get the same job done with far fewer people.
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Tories look after their own don’t they? Always said nothing would change. Years of Labour and now Tory-Oh dear who do we blame now then???
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government is there to protect themselves from the people, not to look after the people.
it needs to get much more extreme before they will do anything about it.
what a joke the council is by the way – i applied for 20 jnr admin jobs when i left school, never got a reply.
I now run the Operations of a $400m international services business – with the way Wolverhampton Council looks after its working class men, its no wonder its a shambles and all the good people leave town.
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stuup said: “Can I work there?”
Why?
David said: “That council staff includes 12,465 workers. That is a lot of people arranging for bins to be collected. Council tax, voting and other bureaucracy can be done online. There is no need for such a ridiculous number”.
That is a typical over simplification by someone who is not aware of the large variety of services provided by local authorities.
“The people at the top are giving themselves more money, while those at the bottom are made redundant. That is unfair.”
I’ll agree with you on that point.
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Councillor Andrew Johnson, Labour group spokesman for finance, said: “It is outrageous that they… see fit to dramatically increase the number of the high earners on the council’s pay roll.”
Of course, I suppose no ‘high earners’ were recruited on your party’s watch, were they?
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David – you should be prime minister – you’d be great!!!! – have you forgotten that the largest department in the council is social services? I take it if a child is in need then you should have a limited amount of workers who just put a web cam in someone’s property and just check via a webcam that the kid is ok….or better still when an elderly or diasbled person needs assistance get a virtual carer to look after them. GSS is right you have no idea of the range of services wolverhampton council has to offer.
I too however agree that there are too many overpaid managers and that needs to be addressed.
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The value of the council’s assets has dropped by £35m.
Yeah, right. So has the value of everybody’s elses. It’s called the bursting of Gordon Brown’s debt-fuelled property boom.
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I live in Torbay which has a population approximately half that of Wolverhampton. The Chief Executive has a salary of £150,000 p.a. It seems that, on the face of it, you’re getting better value for money!
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it is disgusting that these fat cats can give themselves rises when the true workers are sacked or have to reapply for there jobs back but are put on min wages .they should hold there heads in shame.the council whats to charge youth teams £10,000 per year to cut football pitchs ,now we know why .the money would be better spent employing more nurses ,doctors and keeping open elderly homes cause thats where a lot of us will end up
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lets see the top earners, consultants and councillor’s expenses published too! when you add them up they’re onto a huge winner… at our expense.
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Worth every penny………… glad I’ve left.
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Perhaps the council should be quizzed about the implementation of single status ? This has been continuing for some 4 years plus and must have cost the council thousands upon thousands in resources, staff time and consultation. All with a view to reducing the wage of us on the front line….
Employees on the front line are surrounded by talk of pay cuts and redundancies all of which are imminent (if not already happened) yet the council are still happy to increase the salaries of the fat cats at the top, all at the expense of us, the opertional staff..
Come on Wolverhampton Council – a little common sense wouldn’t go a miss…
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pen pushers!!!
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THAT WHY I LEFT ENGLAND.THEY EXPECT YOU TO PAY FOR EVERYTHING.FOR A GOOD LIFE BOY HAVE I GOT ONE NO BLOODY COUNCIL TAX INCOME TAX FREE SUNSHINE ALL SUMMER JUST A LITTLE RAIN IN WINTER BOY ITS GREAT
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I WORK FOR WOLVERHAMPTON HOMES WHERE THEY HAVE A CHIEF EXECUTIVE ON £120,000 AND 6 DIRECTORS EACH ON £80,000. WITH ONLY 20,000 HOUSES. YET THEY ARE CUTTING FRONT LINE STAFF YET AGAIN
THERE ARE EVEN MORE MANAGERS THAN STAFF. BUT THE COUNCILLORS DO NOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT THIS BECAUSE THEY ARE STILL RIDING THE GRAVY TRAIN THEMSELVES. ITS A DISGRACE
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Too many managers and even when they cut some, as they are doing, it will still be top heavy: a few people getting a lot of the money. The people of Wolverhampton will be shocked at the service cuts that are in the pipeline now. ‘Getting more for less’ its called.
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So, less than 1.7% of the total workforce earn more than 50k? Thats hardly a huge proportion out of 12 thousand employee’s.
Much as I agree that the Council is probably too big and inefficient, its much more complicated than just emptying the bins. I suggest a few people look down the list of services the authority is responsible for because it ain’t short.
Could this possibly be another example of the Express and Star presenting a slightly sensationalistic view of affairs in the hope of selling more papers? It’s not exactly known for giving a fair and balanced report.
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This is just one council – how many billions are wasted throughout the country? I might become an exile my self. We need a revolution.
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