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Shock as council chiefs' annual salary revealed
SIX of Blackpool's town hall bosses are now earning more than £100,000, The Gazette can reveal.
Critics today called for "serious questions to be asked" as to whether the salaries and recent pay rises were justified.
Blackpool Chief Executive Steve Weaver earns more than 130,000-a-year while five of his executive directors are among more than 1,000 local authority workers nationwide taking home six figure salaries.
The so-called town hall rich list has been drawn up by pressure group the Tax Payers Alliance.
Opposition MPs are now calling for an end to "excessive" town hall pay.
Wyre MP Ben Wallace said: "I think serious questions need to be asked of local authorities, particularly in relation to the vast gap between those council workers on very low incomes and those at the top of the tree.
"I expect in relation to their pay, many executives are worth half the money they pay themselves and I'm sure some of them do around half the hours we would expect them to do for their salary packages."
Fylde MP Michael Jack said: "I think local authorities are going to feel some pressure to justify these wages.
"Salary levels should be explained so the tax payer can decide whether or not this is value for money."
As well as Mr Weaver, the executive directors in the 100,000 to 130,000 bracket are Julian Kearsley, executive director for business services; Steve Pullan, executive director for adult social care and housing; David Lund, executive director for children's services; Paul Walker, executive director for culture and communities and Helen France, executive director for regeneration and tourism.
Salaries also include a cost of living increase which last year was set at 2.75 per cent.
Lancashire County Council has eight employees in the 100,000 plus bracket including former chief executive Chris Trinnick who was paid 192,342.
Sir Howard Bernstein, chairman of resort regeneration group ReBlackpool, earns 199,000 from his role with Manchester City Council – 5,000 more than Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Bispham pensioner Derek Bunting, a member of Is It Fair?, a campaign group against rising council tax, questioned whether town hall salaries were value for money.
He said: "Blackpool has lost some posts lower down the scale but many local authorities create posts and the public doesn't really know what these people do."
Maria Fort, policy analyst at the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "Councils must start tightening their belts – we're in a recession and many of these rewards are financially unsustainable and morally indefensible."
But town halls defended their pay scales, saying high salaries were vital in order to compete with the private sector.
A Blackpool Council spokeswoman said: "The salaries of council officers are independently reviewed and bench marked using the wages of other unitary authorities. In fact in Blackpool they are slightly lower than similar councils.
"It's important we keep our salaries competitive to enable us to attract and retain quality staff.
"The council's gross budget is over 400m of which staff salaries make up a very small proportion.
"Every post and salary in the council is currently being reviewed to ensure that staff are on the correct pay scale and paid fairly."
Lancashire County Council leader Coun Hazel Harding said: "We are the fourth largest council in the country.
"It is important we have high quality senior directors to provide strong local services for our 1.3 million residents."
Fylde and Wyre do not employ anyone on salaries of more than 100,000.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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