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Top earners cost Town Hall £1m
NINE Town Hall officials earned more than £100,000 a year, according to a report by the Taxpayers’ Alliance.
The salary of former Islington Council chief executive Helen Bailey was £152,500 in 2007-8, an increase of 11.3 per cent on the previous year.
Next highest was Paul Curran, director of children’s services, who was paid £131,324.
New top earner is John Foster, the former chief executive of Wakefield council, who joined Islington as chief executive on a salary of £200,000 in June last year.
In 2007-8, the nine top earners – paid a total of £1.06million – included director of adult social services Gwen Ovshinsky, director of environment and regulations Kevin O’Leary and director of corporate resources Louise Round, who all earned £115,961.
Don Lowin, head of technical resources, was on £100,631, and an unnamed assistant director of public realm was paid £100,631.
Mr Curran and Ms Ovshinsky retired this year.
The Alliance found that Mr Foster was paid £545,000 by Wakefield council during 2007-8. Only £205,000 of that was salary, while the rest was “unspecified other payments”.
A council spokesman said: “If we don’t offer decent salaries, we won’t get decent people to provide the high-quality services our residents deserve.
“It’s worth bearing in mind that public sector wages tend to be less than those in the private sector for equivalent jobs.”
Maria Fort, policy analyst at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “The size of council executives’ pay and perks is staggering and every year the cost continues to rise.
“Councils must start tightening their belts. We’re in a recession and many of these rewards are financially unsustainable and morally indefensible.”
The Taxpayers’ Alliance found that 1,022 staff in town halls across the country were paid more than £100,000 last year. |
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