Active Stirling Chair steps down
Resignation after colleague’s pay rise emerges
Active Stirling‘s chairman has resigned just weeks after it emerged the organisation’s chief executive had been awarded a nine per cent pay hike.
Ken Lewandowski stepped down on Friday following a behindclosed-doors meeting of Stirling Council’s community planning and regeneration committee a day earlier.
Councillors are understood to have discussed the controversial salary rise and other matters relating to Active Stirling before their thoughts were conveyed to Mr Lewandowski. He then tendered his resignation. A council spokesperson said: “We have been advised that Ken Lewandowski resigned from his post as chair and director of Active Stirling, effective from November 9.
“We would like to thank Ken for his time in the role and assure staff, colleagues and residents that the important work of Active Stirling will continue as the process of finding a replacement for Ken gets underway. We would like to wish Ken every success for the future.”
Active Stirling – the organisation which the council pays to run The Peak and other sports facilities in the area – declined to comment further.
Managers at Active Stirling had been negotiating a new pay and conditions structure with UNISON when, in September, eyebrows began to be raised about the salary of the officer heading the organisation, chief executive Andrew Bain.
Union chiefs last month said they had documents indicating the highest pay grade within Active Stirling was up to £85,000.
Active Stirling have declined to say how much Mr Bain earns or give an indication of any rise awarded to him.
But the Observer understands it is in the region of nine per cent.
UNISON regional organiser David O’Connor hit out at the “inherent unfairness” of the pay and grading review within Active Stirling and said lower paid workers at Active Stirling were receiving only the Living Wage of £8.75 an hour.
Mr Lewandowski, who failed to respond to requests for comment, has been on the board of Active Stirling since mid-2014.
The businessman and former chairman of Hibs FC was in the news earlier this year when he was appointed chairperson of Stirling Albion Supporters Trust Board.
It was at a time when the club and its fans were in turmoil over a possible takeover from a consortium which included former professional footballer John Neill and Colin Rowley, managing director of Stirling-based electrical equipment company Dron and Dickson.
However, just a fortnight later Mr Lewandowski and other members of the trust board resigned saying they were no longer prepared to tolerate the abuse directed at them by a section of the club’s support.