Council is out of touch

It was reported on Look North news programme that Sunderland City Council is paying three staff £1.6million per annum.

It was also reported how Dave Smith, the Chief Executive, was earning £175,000 per year and in August 2015, due to Ofsted reporting Children’s Services inadequate and poor levels of leadership were shown, he was asked to leave.

As he did not want to leave voluntarily, he received a pay out of £108,686 as earnings for part of the year he worked, and was paid £185,470 in compensation for loss of office and £331,414 in employer pension contributions.

Another member of staff was paid £605,000 in contributions for loss of their job, and pension contributions.

People may say this is old news, but that is not the point.

It had been reported in the media 539 council staff across the country are paid more than the Prime Minister. Which begs the question, how many on Sunderland Council are paid more than the Prime Minister?

No one working for local government should be paid more than the Prime Minister.

The Echo reported recently that one person on Sunderland Council had a pay rise of £20,000 and another had a pay rise of £7,000: How many others have had an obscene pay rise?

Meanwhile the bin collections have gone to fortnightly and Council Tax has risen by 4.99%, and many people across the city are struggling to pay bills. The streets are full of litter and roads are a mess.

Libraries across the city are also to close due to budgets being slashed by ‘Tory cuts’ but not, of course, due to fat cats pay packets in the council.

There are empty buildings across the city centre, which could be converted into housing.

The council is not listening to the people of the city and instead of having a fair ground or a leisure centre down at the seafront they are building houses.

People will continue to go Shields and other places to spent their money, which could be going back into revenue for the city.

The council is not interested in listening to the people of this city and is out of touch. Name withheld