Why keep things hidden?

Published: 15 April, 2010

• THANK you for your coverage of the ongoing saga of why the Liberal Democrat and Tory administration in Camden are refusing to publish the details of senior officers’ reward packages.
Under duress the Liberal Democrat administration in neighbouring Islington have decided to print the full details of directors’ pay following a campaign by Labour councillors. 
In Camden we are still being told that it is not in the public interest to have the information made available, making us one of the only councils in the country to not be open and transparent. In Camden we don’t know the top pay of officers or the pay of the lowest.
When I wrote to this paper on the issue recently I had a number of members of staff at the council contact me saying that they would fully support the idea of their directors getting out in the public and justifying their salary.
Liberal Democrat councillors in Camden have spent the last four years trying to blame decision-making in Camden on civil servants.
This “not me guv” attitude has made us have an entirely officer-led authority, one which we can see now works against the grain of transparency. 
Indeed the response of the chief executive of Camden baffles me.
I would have thought she would have grasped the bull by the horns and welcome the opportunity to be transparent rather than keep things hidden.
Liberal Democrats often speak of lofty ideal on governance, it’s interesting what they do in practice.
CLLR JONATHAN SIMPSON
Labour, King’s Cross ward