Council is costing us a packet

From the archive, first published Wednesday 28th Sep 2005.

ON my return from holiday I was looking through the Advertisers I had missed when I noticed the council was advertising for ten directors to work under the five group directors already acquired.

They had advertised for them in the local government Chronicle and the Municipal Journal but were unable to cost the campaign.

This surprised me because the day before this appeared in the Swindon Advertiser (September 8) I saw an advert in the Guardian for the same ten directors. It was for two directors with salaries of £97k and £80k, five at £66k and three at £55k all plus ten per cent performance related pay (PRP).

A previous advertisement for five group directors (salaries £120k plus 15 per cent PRP) cost £30k. It was three quarter page with around 100 words. The latest was also three quarter page but contained around 600 words, so I would presume the cost to be in excess of £30k.

This would put the salaries of the top 16 council staff plus PLP approaching £2m, plus £75k for advertising (there were others besides those mentioned). I think that is a bit much for a small authority like Swindon.

M J WARNER

Swindon

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