Call for our fat-cats to take cut in pay

A CALL has been made for Oldham councillors to take their share of the pain from the credit crunch — and take a pay cut.

Saddleworth parish councillor Ken Hulme says it is high time to review the amount of money Oldham council tax payers fork out to their councillors.

He says they claim well in excess of £500,000 every year in allowances and expenses from the public purse.

At a time when the council is preparing to axe over 500 jobs to cover a budget shortfall of nearly £20 million, the Labour parish councillor says members should help by taking a pay cut.

He said: “The widespread view is that most politicians are in it for what they can get out of it. I doubt whether many people believe most of our local councillors really deserve the £500,000- plus they get every year from local taxpayers.

“Our councillors could strike a real blow for the credibility of local politicians as well as making available several hundred thousand of pounds for hard-pressed front-line services if they took a cut in their income.

“I believe they should consider going back to the system where local councillors received a basic attendance allowance to cover travel expenses and evening or lunchtime meals. These payments, for which receipts would be required, would only be made when the councillor actually attended a meeting on council business.”

Councillor Hulme, who like all parish and town councillors receives no payment for his service, says such a system would save money and ensure that those standing for election only did so out of a desire to serve the public with no thought of personal gain.

He added: “I don’t believe the current system of paying councillors a salary and making them council employees rather than public representatives has produced a better or more competent crop of local councillors than we had 20 years ago.

“Here in Oldham we have one of the highest council taxes in the land for some of the poorest public services. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the quality of our elected members.

“I believe that by adopting this system Oldham Council could save in excess of £250,000 per year.”

Borough councillors are paid a basic allowance of £8,710 with the leader getting an extra £26,130 and the deputy leader £16,984. Cabinet members and the main opposition leader get £13,065 on top of their basic allowance, and committee chairmen an extra £7,839.

The allowances increase annually in line with council employees annual increase.

Expenses include £12 for an evening meal and £8 for lunch and 40p a mile for petrol and car maintenance.

Council chief executive Charlie Parker said: “All the allowances paid to members are set by the Independent Remuneration Panel which is wholly responsible for producing the Members’ Allowances Scheme.

“The current levels were presented and agreed at Annual Council, 2007, and will run until Annual Council, 2010. It would not be appropriate for the council to comment on recommendations made by this independent body.”




Council’s £100,000-plus earners revealed



EIGHT Oldham Council staff are on pay packets of at least £100,000 a year, it has been revealed.



They include new chief executive Charlie Parker whose annual salary was advertised at £172,000 — only £22,000 less than the Prime Minister earns.

Among others are the new, all-woman management team whose salaries were advertised at up to £140,000 — assistant chief executive Carolyn Wilkins and executive directors Veronica Jackson (people, communities and society), Elaine McLean (economy, places and skills), Emma Alexander (performance, capacity and services). The quartet replaced five posts to trim £200,000 from the wage bill.

Oldham did not respond to the Town Hall Rich List survey by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which asked councils how many staff they had earning over £100,000 and how much they were paid.

However, it told the Oldham Chronicle that it had eight officers on packages of at least £100,000 — including Mr Parker. The other three are two former directors who are now in senior positions within the council — John Hurst and Liz Terry — as well as one head teacher who has not been named.

The council would not confirm the exact figures.

Nationally 1,022 town hall workers now earn more than £100,000, up from 818 last year.

And at least 16 earn more than the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who gets £194,250 including his MP’s salary. Alliance policy analyst Maria Fort described the sums involved as staggering.

She said: “The fact that executives who have overseen increases in council tax, cuts in services and major policy failures are getting more generously rewarded is frustrating to taxpayers.

John Ransford, chief executive of the Local Government Association, said high pay was needed to encourage the most talented people from the private sector.