Unease over £92k KCC role after post scrapped

Kent County Council has defended its decision to recruit a communications chief on a salary of up to £92,000 – two years after axing a similar post to save money.

The council says the person it appoints will have a wider role than its previous director, whose job, which carried an £86,000 salary, was scrapped in 2014.

In a statement, the council’s corporate director, Amanda Beer, said the new post now included responsibility for customer relations, customer contact and the delivery of new digital products “designed to improve the public’s experience when communicating with Kent County Council”.

But there is said to be some unease about the new position and concerns it could expose the authority to fresh criticism of executive pay.

Ms Beer said the council had restructured in a way that meant the costs represented value for money.

She said: “As part of the restruc- COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF UP TO £92k PR, customer relations, customer contact, digital products ture, which resulted in this role being introduced, a head of service post was deleted, so this new role has all of the previous director’s responsibility plus another service and we consider it to be good value for money.”

The council’s communications team has been cut by more than one-third in the last two years.

The statement continued: “After much consideration, we have arrived at what we see as the most efficient way of communicating our policies, serv- ices and products to help tax payers across Kent. We are now recruiting in a competitive market to get the best and most experienced person for the job.”

The recruitment advert says applicants will need to “shape a world-class strategy” and “build an engaging brand”.

It states: “Uniting best practice innovation with exceptional customer focus, you will boost resident engagement and strengthen Kent’s reputation both regionally and nationally.”