Chief hits back on £50k wages

11:50am Wednesday 27th February 2013 in News

THE chief executive of Bolton Council has rejected claims the authority is a “bloated bureaucracy” after a pressure group revealed more than 60 of its staff earned more than £50,000 last year.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance says 62 Bolton Council staff earned salaries of more than £50,000 in 2011/12 at a total cost to the authority of £4,415,000.

The figure was down by four on the previous year which the group said saved the council £330,000 in wages.

Bolton Council chief executive Sean Harriss said the figure had since reduced further with 52 people now on that salary, down from 78 in 2009/10.

The 2011/12 figure of 62 compares to 80 in Salford, 73 in Trafford, 203 in Tameside, and 81 in Wigan.

Manchester had 164, down 410 on the year before.

TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Matthew Sinclair said: “Taxpayers are still paying far too much for bloated bureaucracies that have been established in too many town halls over the last decade.

“Councillors need to insist that their local authority does more to find savings and cut back on staff costs that residents cannot afford.”

Mr Harriss said: “We completely reject the Taxpayers’ Alliance claim that councils are bloated bureaucracies stuffed with overpaid staff.

“The council has a budget of more than £700 million per year and runs more than 700 different services, so needs to employ highly qualified, skilled staff and pay them accordingly.

“However, as part of our savings, we have reduced the number of senior staff we employ, as well as making savings from services across the council.

“The number of staff earning more than £50,000 employed by the council has reduced from 78 in 2009/10, to 52 in February 2013.

“The number of assistant directors and directors has also reduced from 34 in 2008 to 19 in 2013.

“The council has saved at least £2 million by making these savings in top management and has reduced the amount spent on directors and assistant directors by about 45 per cent.”

Comments(16)

boltonchap says...
11:59am Wed 27 Feb 13

Keep on with the cull. The less the better. I could reduce the head count by 50% in one fell swoop by sacking any senior employee with a beard.

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boltonnut says...
1:47pm Wed 27 Feb 13

Nice work if you can get it.

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MarkAllRead says...
3:45pm Wed 27 Feb 13

Anyone who moans about this stuff is motivated by jealousy. FFS, a £50k salary is hardly going to you a Ferarri and a yacht these days. It's a pretty common salary for someone with experience and responsibility.

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BWFC71 says...
3:50pm Wed 27 Feb 13

For someone with experience that seems a pretty normal wage. My last job, due to my experience I was on just under £50,000 and now in my new current job I am on more than £50,000. That is the private sector, and I have been given a pension deal better than a public sector one!!! But its my experience that commands my wage, and so it should. Doesn't matter whther its private or public its teh experience that counts and anyone who says differently are either jealous or don't realise that loss of experience means a worsening outcome and anyone without teh full experience will have gaps and not know how to fill those gaps!!!

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Marzi30 says...
4:22pm Wed 27 Feb 13

I don't see much evidence of "highly qualified, highly skilled staff" within the Council, if this is the case why is this Town spiralling towards ghost town status ? Where's the innovation ? Where's the regeneration ? When Mr Harriss can demonstrate this to me then only then can he talk about paying them accordingly. Sean Harriss would be first on my "Hit List"

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angus macoatup says...
6:04pm Wed 27 Feb 13

BWFC71 over 50 grand a year and you cant spell the

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aardwolf says...
6:33pm Wed 27 Feb 13

It is the Taxpayers Alliance that are a drain on society both for coming out with this sort of crud and for the expense of their repetitive and vexatious requests for information to public bodies round the country. Just 62 employees earn a decent wage. No wonder that there is no morale in a workforce of 15000

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SmoggyDiasboro says...
7:21pm Wed 27 Feb 13

Cheap pointless shot, Angus.

I frequently mis-type 'teh' instead of 'the' - it's common.

I may disagree with the person on many of his points (and I do on this one as well) but your comment isn't worthy

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grimtown says...
7:53pm Wed 27 Feb 13

Marzi30 wrote:
I don't see much evidence of "highly qualified, highly skilled staff" within the Council, if this is the case why is this Town spiralling towards ghost town status ? Where's the innovation ? Where's the regeneration ? When Mr Harriss can demonstrate this to me then only then can he talk about paying them accordingly. Sean Harriss would be first on my "Hit List"
Could not agree more :)

Executives should be paid in charity shop vouchers as thier so keen on them.

hit list get to the back of the que.lol
.

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grimtown says...
7:54pm Wed 27 Feb 13

angus macoatup wrote:
BWFC71 over 50 grand a year and you cant spell the
eth lol

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Changing times says...
8:51pm Wed 27 Feb 13

Definitely to many senior managers in the Council and to many idiots requesting stupid information that wastes even more tax payers money !

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angus macoatup says...
9:43pm Wed 27 Feb 13

SmoggyDiasboro wrote:
Cheap pointless shot, Angus.

I frequently mis-type 'teh' instead of 'the' - it's common.

I may disagree with the person on many of his points (and I do on this one as well) but your comment isn't worthy
oh thats ok then .hope you don't write prescriptions mardy poo

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normid norm says...
5:54am Thu 28 Feb 13

MarkAllRead wrote:
Anyone who moans about this stuff is motivated by jealousy. FFS, a £50k salary is hardly going to you a Ferarri and a yacht these days. It's a pretty common salary for someone with experience and responsibility.
£50k per year does not mean you do a good job, which in most civil servant roles is the case, the harris fellow is the peak of the problem on £190k per year!

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Harry-Joe says...
9:50am Thu 28 Feb 13

Do they actually earn their 50k is the question. If you do a good job then why not if thats the going rate. But who polices their job roles? Alot of people work for the council who cannot do their job or who are just not willing to and if they worked in the private sector they would not be able to retain their position.
As a tax payer i want someone in a position that is actually capable of doing their job and doing it well. Basically someone who actually gives a 's##t' which lets be honest is hard to find these days.

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BWFC71 says...
3:39pm Thu 28 Feb 13

Marzi30 wrote:
I don't see much evidence of "highly qualified, highly skilled staff" within the Council, if this is the case why is this Town spiralling towards ghost town status ? Where's the innovation ? Where's the regeneration ? When Mr Harriss can demonstrate this to me then only then can he talk about paying them accordingly. Sean Harriss would be first on my "Hit List"
To be fair a lot of council workers do a grand job, and deserve the wage they get if not more in some cases, but what you are mentioning are down to the councillors themselves and to be fair if this was about the Councillors wages I would totally agree - how they can pay themselves so much for basically detroying a town centre and not caring one iota is beyong belief.

But saying that if the Councillors can do very little and get paid handsomely then it is setting a very bad example to the council employees!!!

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wsw69 says...
4:11pm Thu 28 Feb 13

Useless gang of parasites who haven't an effing clue. Let's not get started on the 10 or so union people paid by Bolton Clueless Council which costs over £300,000.00 per year. As for the likes of Sean Harris, he wouldn't have a clue if he had a proper job. He'd be unemployable.

Slightly off topic here.
One of those union people is always in Morrisons Café, Chorley Old Road EVERY DAY at 15.30 stuffing his and his grand childrens face on cheap food.

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