Council to save money by spending £200k on officers

Feb 14 2008 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

WIRRAL Council is to employ two new senior officers at a cost of more than £200,000 as part of a plan to save money.

The move has been crit-icised by Tory opposition councillors who claim it shows the authority’s lead- ership is “out of touch”. But Labour leader of the council Steve Foulkes hit back at the Tories’ criticisms, saying they have “missed the point”.

The row comes as all parties are preparing for the local council elections in May.

According to the Conservatives’ deputy leader, Cllr Leslie Rennie, the new posts will cost £181,748 plus – while a further £35,000 will be spent employing consultants to help with the appointments.

The decision to take on the additional staff was taken at a meeting of the Employment and Appointments Committee on February 12.

The new jobs are chief officer (£99,135-£110,150) and head of asset management (£64,438-£71,598) but Conservative councillors and Unison had opposed the move.

Cllr Rennie said: “I can think of many ways of making better use of a quarter of a million pounds of council tax.

“This is further proof the people running the council have lost touch with what is happening on the ground such as the cuts to meals on wheels and axing eight school crossing patrols.”

But Cllr Foulkes said: “The prime aim of this administration is to keep council tax levels as low as possible and to deliver the most effective services we can.”

He said the aim was to make the best use of council buildings and reduce the financial burden for the authority.