I doubt I am going to get a reply from Eric Pickles to my
letter of 29 December
about Leader O’Neill’s refusal to countenance any reduction in the level of
pay for Bexley’s top staff. We are all in it together didn’t you know? I chased it up
with an email to no avail but a helpful soul has sent a copy of a letter from
one of Pickles’ minions in reply to a similar enquiry which he followed up with
three emails and four telephone calls before getting any response. Basically
it says ‘I am all hot air because I am not going to do anything’ and
falls back on easy platitudes like “it would not be appropriate for the
Department to comment on individual cases” and salaries are “a local matter for
councils as individual employers”.
Pickles recently said that “high paid local government officers should take a
voluntary pay cut of 5 to 10%” and I was told that Francis Maud the Conservative
Party Chairman on TV’s Question Time last week said that the population should
be prepared to “be rude” to the fat cats in order to persuade them to see sense.
I think I have probably done my bit in that direction but for good measure will
add that my experience of C.E.O. Will Tuckley leads me to think he is a totally
useless git who benefits the borough not one jot let alone more than £4,000’s worth a
week. Pickles appears to be all mouth and no trousers. How much ruder do we
have to get Mr. Maud?