The Taxpayers’ Alliance has updated its Town Hall Rich List. I’m not sure
how accurate it is, not very I suspect. It doesn’t help comparisons that the format is different from last year.
In
2011 the TPA reported that 16 Bexley council officers were on more than £100,000 a year.
Last year only eight were listed and yesterday they reported the number has decreased from nine to seven.
I suspect the discrepancy may have arisen over
Deborah Absalom and Angela Hogan
who left council employment two years ago but with, in one case, a golden
goodbye in the following financial year.
The TPA didn’t give Angela Hogan a mention by name in either 2012 or 2011 but
the precise numbers don’t really matter, the fact is they are all far too high.
The
local branch of UKIP has announced that its policy is to cap council pay at
£100,000. They are in good company, so is Eric Pickles’, the Secretary of State
for Communities and Local Government. 2,219 Bexley residents signed a petition
to that effect in 2011, most of them in council leader Teresa O’Neill’s ward,
but she doesn’t agree. She had the petition thrown out claiming that the
salaries quoted were exaggerated. In fact
the reverse was true.
Labour are no better, they refused to back the petition and their leader said
that Will Tuckley should be paid even more, the same as the Head of the Civil
Service. What? The man who doesn't even administer our dustbin collections
(it’s contracted out, like most Bexley services are) should be paid the same as
the man who stands over everyone in the Ministry of Defence, the Departments of Transport,
Health and Environment etc. Total madness from all Bexley’s politicians. (†)
UKIP,
and any Independent candidates, will have an uphill struggle to overcome the apathy of Bexley’s
electorate and they are going to have to up their game somewhat too. Maybe it is just me but I
expect to learn what UKIP is thinking when following their Twittering. Appearing to
bait the other two parties could be mistaken for student politics.
All I know about Bexley UKIP so far is that they are against
the Gallions Reach bridge and against
silly pay levels. What about their take on revenue driven parking enforcement, a short free parking period on
our dying high streets, employing
care agencies that flout
the minimum wage regulations or transparency and honesty on the council chamber?
During the next 12 months I’d like to know the answers.
Town Hall Rich List 2011.
Town Hall Rich List 2012.
Town Hall Rich List 2013.
† The Labour member for Belvedere, Seán Newman, spoke in favour of considering the petition.