Not right time for pay rises at top of council
LAST week Cardiff councillors met for the June meeting of full council.
The council was asked to approve the Pay Policy Statement which outlines the pay of staff at the council.
Prior to the meeting I proposed a “reference back” asking the Labour-run council to reconsider the pay rise to senior officers at the council.
During the meeting I outlined there are a number of individuals at Cardiff council earning between £86,000 and £180,000 per year and that it can’t be right to approve a pay rise to these individuals. I was shocked when not one Labour councillor agreed with me and went ahead to vote for the pay rise.
Yes, there are a number of committed senior officers at Cardiff council and I value their skills and commitment; however, I don’t agree that now is the right time to give them a pay rise.
Our city is facing some tough times ahead and I’ve always believed it is wrong to ask hard-working council taxpayers to pay more for less.
Next year I’m sure Cardiff Labour will ask you to pay another inflation-busting council tax increase and it is completely wrong, particularly when they are approving massive pay rises to senior officers.
I listen to the legitimate views of residents in our communities and they all tell me they want to see improvements to local services and it’s about time Cardiff Labour focused more on delivering the changes and improvements our communities need instead of spending time approving these huge pay rises.
Cllr Joel Williams Councillor for Pontprennau and Old St Mellons
The rest of us are finding it a struggle
HERE we go again. Cardiff council have awarded all their employees a substantial pay rise, but you see they work so hard (at what I would like to know) and of course no one else works as hard.
This at a time when everyone else is pulling in their purse strings trying to make ends meet because of Covid-19.
Judy Cross Fairwater, Cardiff
Deaf viewers have been let down
DURING the coronavirus crisis the BBC decided to suspend the subtitled morning Welsh news on its news programmes.
This left deaf viewers having to rely on ITV’s Good Morning Wales bulletins, which are not subtitled.
This act of discrimination by ITV means that deaf viewers in Wales have been deprived of the morning news, an act which Ofcom has shamefully endorsed.
Complaints from our elected political representatives have been lodged with Ofcom.
In the meantime the BBC has announced that the subtitled Welsh morning news will return to the screen on Monday, July 13, thus once more bringing fully accessible subtitled news to deaf viewers. Cedric Moon
Cardiff Deaf Support Group
Mabinogion is essential reading
I HEAR that American singer Stevie
Nicks is thinking of doing a movie project based on Rhiannon from the Mabinogion.
I’m sure we all wish her every success.
In this she is showing more interest in and respect for our national classic than many of our “educators” in Wales today.
Many of the tales are well within
I’ve always believed it is wrong to ask hardworking council taxpayers to pay more for less
the scope of primary school children either in a modern Welsh version or an English translation.
Yet as a child I left school knowing nothing of it. I suspect that little has changed.
They say that no child should leave school without having some knowledge of Shakespeare.
Surely, also, no Welsh child’s education is complete without some familiarity with the Mabinogion.
Tomos Richards Merthyr Tydfil
Hammering home some humour!
WATCHING Countryfile with my wife on Sunday I asked her, “Why is that man striking that tree with a bird?”
She replied that I needed my eyes tested badly as he was hitting it with a hammer.
I said, yes, but it was a yellow hammer.
Terry Spragg Roath, Cardiff
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