Council staff salary shock

A clear-out of Powys County Council staff has been called for after one taxpayer discovered 1,285 employees are paid annual salaries of more than £30,000.

Kenny Thain, of Forge, Machynlleth, said he is tired of putting up with “deteriorating services” and “extortionate”‘ increases in council tax.

Mr Thain submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the council to find out how many of its employees are paid starting salaries over £30,000.

And he was staggered to find out nearly 1,300 people earn that much, compared to the UK average annual wage of about £24,000.

Mr Thain’s results showed Mark Kerr, council chief executive, is earning in the salary range of £117,854 to £125,981 a year, while two executive directors are being paid between £94,277 and £107,086 a year.Mr Thain said: “Living here in Powys is being made really miserable by the actions of the county council.

“Our street lights have gone out, schools have been closed and public services such as local bus routes are either being ended or curtailed all in the interest of supposedly saving cash.
http://www.shropshirestar.com/2008/12/04/c...f-salary-shock/


I know that this article doesn't directly relate to Shropshire. But hang in there - because it will do very soon. ;)

I'm presuming that the 1285 council employees includes a fair few headteachers and other senior teaching staff. There are 107 Primary Schools, 13 Secondary Schools and 3 Special Schools in Powys. It's hardly unreasonable that everyone from Heads of Department upwards in those schools is earning more than £5k over the British median salary.

A quick Google search shows that Kenny Thain appears to write frothing-at-the-mouth letters to his local rag on a regular basis.

I get the distinct impression that he's one of those tedious henpecked middle-aged men who buttonhole you in a pub, or on the train, and regurgitate whatever fictional outrage they've read in the Sun that morning.

I don't earn that much, but I don't think that £30 000 is a huge amount when you're the only breadwinner with a wife and children to support, even in Powys. What mortgage will that get you - £120 000? You'd have a job buying a family house for that sort of money, even in somewhere remote like Llanidloes.

Instead of resorting to personal attacks on Kenny Thain - Why not just accept the fact that the economic crises is starting to hit alot of people in the pocket right now and criticism (such as Mr Thain's) against our councils, is totally justifiable.
The increasingly hard-pressed taxpayer has every right to demand more accountability and transparency from their council.

i will probably get splinters in my bum from this one but i kinda agree with both of you!
i dont think a salary of £30000 is that high for the main wage earner and agree that it probably covers a lot of higher category staff.

what i do disagree with is people who are paid over 100000 and get big pay increases every year for doing nothing!!

i get annoyed at council tax rises that i have to pay, especcially as like you say the service gets worse but the cost increases, and as i live on the outskirts of the village we seem to pay more for less services.

has anyone else noticed the appalling service given by veoila over xmas?
we have called about it as we try to recycle but they dont pick them up!!!
apparently they made a boob with the leaflets over xmas and were only picking up grey bins but the leaflet seems to show they will be doing green bins, so all my recycling has been for nothing!!!
useless!!! typical french company, ha ha