Manifesto – Conservatives to purge top earners

Published: 15 April 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY

A FIFTH of jobs held by Camden Council’s top-earning council staff will be scrapped if the Conservatives win outright control at the Town Hall.

The Tories are also promising to freeze council tax until 2013, a bold pledge which the other main parties have warned will be difficult to implement without making damaging cuts to council services.

The policies are included in the Conser­vative local election manifesto released on Monday. It sets out what will happen if the party becomes the first group other than Labour to take overall control of the council for 40 years.

It was the last local manifesto to be released among the main parties and given a low-key launch, presumably to avoid attention being diverted away from parliamentary campaigns. It is understood, however, that the Conservatives have drawn up a battle plan which they feel can realistically return them up to 36 councillors in 12 target wards. It would mean they would no longer have to share power in Camden with the Lib Dems, and they feel buoyed by the fact the General Election and council elections will both be held on May 6.

The Conservative manifesto says a Tory regime at the Town Hall would start chopping back the number of people earning more than £100,000 a year. 

The cut is designed to show that it won’t just be “dedicated, hard-working staff” on the lower rungs that will be affected by redundancies when the next administration grapples with the poor economic climate and less financial help from government.

“Camden is an excellent borough in which to live and work,” group leader Councillor Andrew Marshall said. “However, some major things are wrong and many others can be improved. Every­one knows Conservative councils provide better services at less cost.”

Other manifesto pledges include selling unwanted council-owned offices to raise money and cutting back on “unpopular” transport schemes, 

Like their rivals, the Conservative will work on building a primary school in the north-west of the borough and a new secondary south of the Euston Road.