Telford & Wrekin Council Watch - Staggering Increase In Councils Wage Bill

Staggering Increase In Councils Wage Bill

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Written by John Franklyn

Wednesday, 01 October 2008

Staggering Increase In Council Wage Bill

Whilst the cost of living is rising steeply, the cost of maintaining elected members has increased by approximately £130,000 from next year, monies have been removed from libraries, homeless storage, meals on wheels increased, carers having to pay more for their care, the cost of salaries have increased within Telford and Wrekin Council by over

£6,700,000 (£6.7 million)

During the year 2007 / 2008

Yet staffing levels have only increased by 109 over the same period.

Further statistics are as follows

The total wage bill for the Council was as follows:-

2005/2006 - £124,422,123

2006/2007 - £137,206,304

2007/2008 - £143,945,532

The total number of staff employed by the Council is a follows:-

2005/2006 = 5838

2006/2007 = 6013

2007/2008 = 6122

Telford and Wrekin Councils wage bill has increased by

£19,523,409 (£19.5 million) in a 3 year period.

As a tax payer, do you feel you receive value for money?

How much of this increase is to the Directors of T&W Council, which as recently identified, the top earners within the council have increased by in excess of £1,000,000. This increase means, those earning £50,000 and above have taken approximately one sixth of the pay rise that covers 6122 employees.

After the recent debacle over Concessionary Bus Fares and Telford Town Park, those posts certainly need a review pdq and slimmed down considerably.

Chief Executive

The Chief Executive certainly seems to be on a nice little earner with the following

Pay increments made to the Council’s Chief Executive were as follows:-

2005/2006 - £20K delayed external salary review from 2000 when the then new Chief Executive was appointed

2006/2007 - £4425

2007/2008 - £3822

Whilst the Council monitor the cost of FOI requests, they have no idea how much a complaint costs. A number of businesses who operate world wide have estimated the cost of a complaint to be £250, yet T&W Council state

Accordingly the Council does not hold the information requested in relation to the cost of administering the Council’s Complaints Procedures and the number of staff employed in administering the complaints system.

Surely you would expect them to have an estimated cost of complaints, yet they have made the following payments under their complaints policy

Without prejudice, ex gratia payments were made as follows (these are payments made following complaints, but not necessarily issued because of the council’s “wrongdoing”)

2005/2006 = £509.66

2006/2007 = £54.17

2007/2008 = £2705.00

If the Council are prepared to increase salaries by £6.7 million, surely you would expect them to at least estimate the cost of a complaint.

Now you know how much the Council spends on wages and have seen the staggering increase over a period of 3 years,

Do you feel that you are receiving value for money?

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