Graham reports back from Friends of Scholes Park meeting
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by Lib Dem team on 22 February, 2019
For the first time in over 20 years, Stockport Council failed to set a budget.
Labour’s plans, which include scrapping the free town centre Metroshuttle bus, were voted down by Lib Dem and Conservative councillors. The move came after Labour blocked a Lib Dem amendment which sought to take power away from the town hall and give it to local people and ward councillors in each area around the borough.
The Lib Dem amendment would also have saved £11,000 by scrapping the meal councillors have before each Full Council meeting. Labour and Conservative councillors voted to keep the free food.
Councils have a legal duty to set a balanced budget, so the council will meet again next Tuesday. In the meantime the political groups will meet informally.
The other notable event at the meeting was an outpouring of outrage from Labour councillors when a Lib Dem councillor mentioned the national Labour problem with anti-Semitism. Labour councillors jumped to their feet, pointing at the Lib Dem councillor and shouting “disgrace” at her for daring to mention the issue.
Cllr Iain Roberts said “I do not for a moment believe any Stockport Labour councillor is anti-Semitic, but the Labour Party nationally clearly does have a huge problem with anti-Semitism which it desperately needs to tackle. It was shocking to see their reaction to the issue being raised. I have not heard a single Stockport Labour councillor speak out about the anti-Semitic bullying that’s rife in their party.”
18 Comments
Wish I could get free meals at work!
Iain – I agree with you about the £11000 so why didn’t you scrap it when you had control of the council?
Hi Bruce – despite not being in overall control, we were able to cut nearly all councillor teas – this is the last one that needs to go. The Conservatives voted to keep it.
I ask again – why did you not do it when in power?
Food Banks and free meals for councillors – incompatible!!!
What is the current salary of the Chief Executive?
Robert – when I was working in the public sector and, for a while, holding elected offcie with my trade union (NALGO & UNISON), chief executive salaries were, like every other employee, governed by national conditions of service. For cheif execs, the pay grade was directly related to population size of the local authority.
It was a good system – fair and transparent. But the national conditions have been weakened by government intervention in recent years. It has meant that the gap between the pay of chief execs and that of the average council worker has widened quite considerably. In that, it reflects the similar situation in major private companies.
I believe the argument runs that higher salaries are needed to attract the best candidates. That argument only seems to run for already well paid jobs. On the other hand, the salaries of, say, child protection social workers have been held at less than inflation for a number of years as part of the government’s austerity programme. Yep, they like the idea of being able to recruit chief execs – but seemingly don’t care about being able to recruit social workers.
As there is now no transparency about chief exec salaries, I’ve no idea how much Stockport’s gets paid. However, this link tells you that, in 2017/8, she was paid between £144k and £173k.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/ii3xdrqc6nfw/1pt6ubpVwo6GuG0qKGCigq/ee29870a5e408ab3dd21154094fe6c44/Stockport_council_organisational_chart_salaries_2017.pdf
I suspect that is not too out of the way for the cheif exec of a major organisation with the budget and staff numbers that the council has.
By way of comparison a fully qualified social worker is likely to start on £22k
Yes Stockport councils transparency web links are difficult to follow and even more difficult to find out the Chief Exec;s salary – something they are legally required to provide. Fortunately the tax payers alliance has got it and here it is
Stockport North West E. Boylan Chief Executive £181,750
This does not include the (no doubt) massive pension payment.
Back in the day when I was negotiating pay grades for Unison members in the probation service, there was an unofficial rule of thumb that a supervisor’s rate of pay was 10% above those s/he supervised. And that 10% plusage applied all the way up the family tree, so each higher level had a pay grade paying 10% more than the lower one.
As for pensions, Stockport’s cheif exec’s pension will have the same basis as mine – as we are probably both members of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund. There have been some changes to way things are calculated since I retired (not to the benefit of the retiree) but I’m happy to tell you how mine was calculated. I paid into the the Fund from when I was 18 at approx 6% of my salary. The pension provides for 1/80th of my final salary for each full year of service. Calculation for me meant my pension is about one third of my salary.
I was referring to employer pension contributions which appear to be now around 20% of employee pensionable salary.
Frederick – as I recall, employers contribution was around 12% when I was working. Must have increased since then. It was something always factored in when pay claims were being discussed. And that’s a fair point – it meant that local government salaries/wages were always depressed because there was the contribution. It was a constant issue with some union members who said they’d rather have increased pay now, not a better pension many years hence. I was not one of them – the pension scheme was probably the best of our conditions of service. A good works pension is the absolute best defence against pensioner poverty.
Good for you and the other Lib Dems
you should BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU
The rise of vile anti-Semitism is happening throughout the country, and is not restricted to any party or political persuasion. I would prefer parties working together to tackle this problem, rather than using it to settle political scores.
I wish it were otherwise, but it’s very clear that Labour has a serious problem with anti-semitism on a level far, far beyond anything I have ever come across in any other mainstream party. Labour need to address this, and the party should be called out if they allow racism to continue unpunished within their ranks.
Can someone please tell me who the hell are these anti-semites as I’ve never heard or met one? It’s hard to believe being honest.
I cannot believe that the Labour party are the only party with anti-semites. It doesn’t make sense.
Bryan Neill are you seriously doubting the 800 individual reports of anti-Semitism within the Labour party? Do you know there is an organisation that collates data on this because the number of incidents have increased within society & denial is a slippery slope.
Sadly, the Labour Party is riddled with anti-Semitism. That’s not me saying that. Many of their own MPs, and groups like Momentum, have admitted it, but Jeremy Corbyn refuses to admit there’s a problem and the party consistently fails to tackle it.
It often takes the form of Jewish people being bullied online, or anti-Semitic material being shared on Facebook and Twitter.
For one example today see:
https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/jewish-labour-mp-jeremy-corbyn-hasnt-acknowledged/