Council ‘double standards’ charge

A COUNCIL which has made severe cuts to public services has paid more than 500 staff salaries of between £40,000 and £210,000.

On top of this, 62 councillors have been paid in total more than £920,000 – with two Staffordshire Moorlands county councillors receiving almost £30,000, while the leader, Councillor Philip Atkins, received more than £50,000.

Now Staffordshire County Council has come under fierce criticism after a Freedom of Information request obtained by the Post & Times shows that 519 members of staff were paid the salaries, which excludes school staff, during the last financial year.

Staffordshire County Council, which take the biggest share of the council tax, has overseen many cuts including bus subsidies which has seen many communities become isolated with no public transport, while the latest cut proposed is the school crossing wardens service.

Other cuts have included libraries, lengthsman services, youth clubs, country parks and a nursery closure in Leek.

The authority increased its council tax by almost six per cent last year and are proposing another increase this year.

In response, Councillor Atkins said: “The county council is a large strategic authority which has reduced its own running costs by more than £240m over the last nine years and over the same time the number of councillors and size of the senior leadership team has also decreased.

“In that time we have also seen our bill for caring for an increasing ageing population and rising number of vulnerable children soar to £320m a year, at the same time as Government funding has fallen.

“With less money to round, we all have to do a little more for ourselves and our communities and, yes pay a little more, to ensure we can continue to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities.

“However we believe Staffordshire residents know best how to spend their money and we will still have one of the lowest county council taxes in the country.”

But the salaries and councillors allowances have been described as “double standard” and “disgusting”.

District councillor Linda Malyon, whose ward has suffered drastically from the bus subsidy cuts, said: “What does your county council do for you? Some councillors have a salary of up to £50,000 and more than 500 staff earn between £40,000 and £210,000.

“This while they isolate villages, causing social deprivation for those who want to go to work or college, they close libraries, they cut crossing patrols, they cut gritting routes, they forget potholes, they cut support

staff in schools, they stop the lengthman scheme – getting parishes to pick up the tab – with lots more cuts to come this year. They also put up the council tax, of which the county council receives the lions share.

“It’s time the double standard stopped and they started to look after the people who put them there. More and more services are being contracted out to other companies. So what do they actually do for all the money they take home? Would they be able to manage on state pension or minimum wage with no car, no way of getting out of the place they live? Do they rely on what used to be public services? Somewhere along the line the greed machine has to stop and they have to be accountable to the people.”

Matt Wall, has two children at Woodcroft School in Leek, which faces having its crossing warden axed.

He said “I think its wrong that one of the highest earning councillors has the highest expenses. Maybe if councillors controlled their expenses better the council could afford not to cut our crossing patrol wardens.”

Former councillor and retired lecturer, Reg Davies of Leek, said: “I recently learned that Staffordshire County Council (Conservative controlled) are paying 519 officers between £40,000 and £210,000 per year. Hands up all those reading this, who work in the private sector and are paid at this level. Just as I thought, not many hands. This is nothing short of scandalous.

“At the same time, this morally defunct council are withdrawing funding for crossing wardens putting the lives of children at risk. If you told this to a horse, you could rightly expect it to give you a sharp kick in the head.

“I was a member of the old Leek Urban District Council at the time of the conversion to the Staffordshire Moorland District Council. This is when councillors first got paid an allowance. The first decision made was to reduce by half, the recommended allowance. That was a time when councillors had some morality.”

Last October the Post & Times reported that parents in Blackshaw Moor were left in anger after Staffordshire County Council would not allow their children to use the school bus to Churnet View Middle School in Leek unless they paid £507 a year for school transport. If parents refused or could not pay the amount children had to walk along the busy main A53 road to school.

A spokeswoman for Blackshaw Moor Action For Safe Transport, said: “It’s utterly disgusting, shameful, greedy and selfish that council staff are getting these ridiculously high wages. The chief executive, John Henderson, earns more than the Prime Minister, yet they say they need to make cuts to balance the books?

“They will cut crossing wardens earning a minimal amount of money and make parents pay for the school bus, but at the same time will pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to individual members of staff.

“The council paid nearly £44,000 in mileage costs to its cabinet members last year. One of them, Gill Heath, came second highest, getting over £2,400 in mileage allowance, but she couldn’t help get our children a school bus pass.

“Who is deciding these things? Seriously, is there no common sense? Does no-one look at the figures and think something is wrong here? They are putting parents in an impossible situation.

“Cutting some fat cat wages and expenses claims would save them a lot more money than scrapping the crossing wardens and bus passes. They should be looking at the top of the tree for the cuts.”

Councillor Atkins, above, added: “While councils can no longer fund everything they once did, we are committed to working with and supporting our communities to deliver affordable, alternative solutions and our community library partnership is just one great example of people power working at its best.”

Councillor allowances have to be published and are in the public domain.

To see how much your county councillor received go to https://www. staffordshire.gov.uk/yourcouncil/ members/membersallowances/ home.aspx

The county council will be presenting its final budget to full council in February.