Council boss Colin Barrow under fire for £30k 'special advisor' post, despite calling for spending curbs

Published: 17 September 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

CITY council leader Colin Barrow has been accused of hypocrisy after he advertised for a £30,000-a-year special adviser in the same week he called for major public sector reforms to curb spending.

The “cabinet adviser” role is described as supporting “the leader of the council in executing the full range of his duties”.

The post is advertised with three more senior positions – the highest paid being, head of transformation and project management, with a salary of up to £128,000 a year – months after bosses slashed 60 city guardian positions from the streets.

Labour group leader Paul Dimoldenberg attacked the salaries as profligate, saying it was evidence of skewed priorities.

The jobs are:

• head of transformation and project management (up to £128,448pa);

• head of members services (up to £85,212pa);

• supplier relationship manager (up to £59,019pa);

• cabinet adviser (up to £31,935pa).

Cllr Dimoldenberg said: “These four backroom jobs alone cost council taxpayers over £300,000 a year. Surely some of the money could be better spent on front-line services for the most vulnerable Westminster residents?

“Hundreds of front-line jobs have been axed, services have been cut and charges have been increased, yet Westminster Conservatives continue to fill backroom jobs at huge salaries.

“Why does Cllr Barrow expect council services affecting other people to be undertaken by volunteers when he is not prepared for a volunteer do work for him? Why is it one law for him and another law for everyone else?”

Last week Cllr Barrow invited criticism for what some people said was an unrealistic aim of turning Westminster into an authority run by volunteers. He told a delegation of local authority experts that he was going to make the borough a model of David Cameron’s “Big Society” vision.

Councillor Melvyn Caplan, cabinet member for finance and resources, said: “We are not recruiting for any new positions and will fill many posts internally or leave them vacant. All departments have already undergone significant restructuring as part of our ongoing commitment to reduce costs to local taxpayers. Over the next three years we are making savings of £60million and have already removed around 350 posts.

“Through our Living City Conversation – Westminster’s version of the Big Society – we are always looking at ways of becoming even more efficient through the greater involvement of volunteers and community groups in local services.”