The pay row engulfing Caerphilly County Borough Council shows no sign of stopping with a fresh war of words between rival councillors.
In the wake of the fallout from revelations that top council bosses had secret pay rises of between 20% and 30%, councillors agreed a compromise deal at a special full council meeting last week.
The council’s chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan will have his salary capped at £137,000 a year for the next four years while pay rises of up to 30% for 20 other council bosses, also previously agreed by a secret committee of councillors in September last year, were revised.
The new pay structure will be kept, but chief council officers will now be moved to the lowest increment level instead of the highest, or the next highest where the lowest increment in the pay deal is lower than the old system.
Following the deal, which Plaid councillors voted against, Plaid group leader Cllr Colin Mann said council taxpayers will be left to pay for the scaled down increases.
He said: “This deal will still cost more than £1.1m over four years – the equivalent of more than 2% on council tax bills.
“Plaid Cymru believes it is crucial that the residents of the county borough don’t pay the price for this Labour debacle through their council tax. Why should residents have to pick up the bill for rises given to some very highly paid officers?
“Under the last Plaid administration council tax was frozen for two years because we wanted to help residents struggling with their fuel, food and energy bills. In the council’s medium term financial strategy, a rise of 2.35% was forecast for the 2013/14.
“But that was indicative and certainly not cast in stone so Labour can if they wish continue to support the residents of the county borough and also maintain the excellent services developed by the Plaid administration. There is no need for them to make council taxpayers pay.
“Residents know that the chief executive will still receive a £100 a week rise, something most people can only dream of, and that is still causing massive anger among residents and low-paid council workers.”
Labour’s council leader Harry Andrews has hit back and labelled Plaid “deceitful”.
He said: “In the council meeting on January 17, Plaid Leader Cllr Colin Mann proposed to terminate the contracts of senior officers and re-engage them on new terms and conditions. Cllr Mann persisted with this, despite being aware that it would be virtually impossible to enforce, would likely lead to the council being unable to deliver its core services and would have huge hidden costs.
“Throughout the negotiations with staff and the trade unions to achieve a voluntary cut, Plaid have stood on the outside trying to be as destructive as possible in order to gain as much political capital as they can. Their Deputy Leader was in favour of the original decision, yet they have taken no responsibility and failed to apologise.”
“I do not believe that they have the best interests of the residents of this county borough at heart. All they care about is short term political gain for their party at the expense of good governance. For the same small minded political reasons, they have no interest in moving on from this situation.”
“Deceitfully, they have chosen to link the pay issue to the forthcoming budget. In reality, the last Plaid administration froze council tax before the 2011 Assembly and 2012 local elections but built a council tax rise of 2.35% into their medium term financial strategy for this non election year. They knew that the alternative would be to cut services. At the time the Labour opposition warned that Plaid were pushing debts into the future. We now have to deal with the mess that they left. Discussions over the budget are ongoing and no decisions have yet been made.”
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Somewhat disingenuous as Plaid froze council tax by rolling out charges for services, hiking existing charges and slamming bereaved families with disproportional increases in charges.
Far from helping residents in their struggles they merely sought out easy targets, gave themselves a pat on the back and boosted their propaganda. The only people they truly helped were themselves.
The result of all this political gesticulating is that the 21 officers of the council received a pay hike at a time of extreme financial pressures on the Ratepayers of the Caerphilly council.
The original decision by the gang of three ( Secret Panel) stands.
The confirmation of that decision by the full Council also stands.
The only thing that changed was the point at which they were placed in relation to their new grades.
I think they should consider themselves very lucky that, so far, they have managed to hang on to their very well paid positions as public servants. The entire process has heaped disgrace on the Caerphilly council and those who were responsible for the original report and its contents, ( a, so far, secret report)
What has altered is that each of these very lucky senior officers will have to wait before they move further up their new incremental pay grades, the inevitable result being they are now entitled to increased pension contributions made on their behalf by the ratepayers of the borough, they are waiting on the sidelines to make the inevitable application to increase their pay grades in relation to the new incremental stages of the award, and the question is which political group will have the courage to prevent that happening? Labour or Plaid Cymru?.
And all this is in the face of the information from the most senior officer of the Caerphilly council being reported as saying the original panel meeting was -illegal- in that the proper procedures were not followed to call it. But, it appears the Caerphilly council has ignored that advice?.
It is interesting that Council leader Harry Andrews says,
"Their [Plaid Cymru's] Deputy Leader was in favour of the original decision, yet they have taken no responsibility and failed to apologise.”
Perhaps Colin Mann will say definitively whether their representative, Cllr. Fussel, was for, or against, this huge pay rise for the top salaried council people.
If votes were recorded then there would be no argument. I sit on Caerffili Town Council and supported a Labour motion to record votes. This motion was narrowly defeated by casting vote of the chairman. The public deserves to know how their representives vote and I,for one, have no qualms about revealing how I cast my vote on their behalf.
Hopefully a system will soon be in place throughout the borough where votes are recorded which will give transparency to the democratic process and will make political mud slinging, such as we are seeing over the pay deal row, a thing of the past.
I agree with Helen. In response to Mr Trevor Bond the irregularities of the senior remuneration committee meeting which was held in September is being investigated. I was there in the audience when the Head of Legal said that there is an internal investigation.
What is annoying me with this issue, is that Plaid are quick in playing cheap politics but are afraid to recognise the decision their own colleague made on the committee – Plaid voted for this too??
I support the comments of Cllr Richard Williams when he says that if votes were recorded then we could have cleared up who voted for what on the renumeration panel. Given Cllr Fussell and the Plaid Cymru group supported a motion put before full council a few months ago to record all votes taken in council, why didn't he insist on a recorded vote to be taken on the renumeration panel?
If Plaid were so keen to help hard pressed families in Caerphilly Borough, why did they not introduce a living wage when they had the chance? As Helen points out in order to cover the cost of the council tax freezes, Plaid put up the costs for virtually everything else. Which didn't help, and in the case of the fee for rubbish collection lead to an increase in fly tipping which the council had to pay to clear up.
I proposed the recording of all votes on Caerphilly Town Council which Cllrs Williams and Pritchard supported, and which Plaid rejected, and I think that the murk of uncertainty and misinformation which surrounds this issue proves conclusivly the need to introduce a system of recording all votes taken by councillors in whatever circumstances and at whatever level,so that their residents can see what they have and haven't supported.
The general public have not been given the names of the 20 others who got payrises and what they were awarded. It's not good enough we need transparency in this matter.
1% over 4 years is the same as a 1% a year rise, local government workers pay is 1% set by Westminster. When it comes to costing money Plaid are in a league of there own. Failed Icelandic banks investment cost tax payers £1.4 million and hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost interest we are still waiting for an apology. I remember the now infamous words of Plaids then leader Cllr Whittle; I did not know we had any money in Icelandic banks, vintage Whittle. Then the great Islwyn Transport sell off, they sold IBT for £ 2.3 million and under righting the pension fund cost tax payers
£ 2.3 million, only Plaid could sell an asset and not make any profit. Plaid the party that fails
Regarding the voting, Councillor Colin Mann had a letter in the Western Mail of 26 January, he wrote that Councillor Fussell did not vote for the pay rise. Is this the truth, and have the Labour Party been trying to obscure the truth over the past few weeks?.
This dispute seems to question the values of the Labour Party. To the outsider the Labour Party is the establishment party, whilst Plaid is the anti colonial independence party. Now the Labour Party is, in theory, a left wing party, which has a good record all over the world has campaigned for colonial peoples rights to freedom, starting from India in 1947, but not in Wales. It seems to me Labour`s opposition to Plaid`s aims, in the long term and short term is irrational, since many independent commentators see Labour as the old party of apaprtheid, and Plaid as the ANC, another comapriasn would be the Labour Party is the US Cavalry imposinf "American Values" while Plaid is forced to play the role of the native Americans. It would appear that the Labour Party and Plaid have a different view of Wales, the Labour Party see Wales as part of the polity called Britain, while Plaid doesnt.It is this dichotomy of views that mkaes this dispute so bitter.
If the original controversial decision by the gang of five was made after following a process that was ` illegal`, it follows that the decision of the panel was illegal. Doh!!!!
The fact remains that whatever Plaid or Labour have done, will do, or may want to do, in relation to this subject the ratepayers of the borough are picking up the bill for this civic inefficiency. We will all see by what degree when the soon to be announced hike in Council Tax is declared.
Kate Whitehorn writes,
"It would appear that the Labour Party and Plaid have a different view of Wales."
Well I certainly hope so, not many Welsh people want Plaid's stated aim of a nominally 'independent' Wales which would be controlled by- and funded by – faceless people in Brussels and Strasbourg. I would like to see a list of "independent Commentators" who compare Labour to a "party of apartheid" I certainly have not read anything like this.
To get back to the point, the council delegated powers to a secret committee to award massive pay rises on the basis of, an equally secret, report. The ensuing anger has caused much embarassment and led to a, reportedly, heated meeting of the full council which was also out of bounds to the public.
The way the Plaid member of this secret committee voted is of far importance and relevance to this debate than the normal arguments about whether Wales is part of the UK or not. Labour and Plaid will always fight like two rats in a sack over that; the wage rise is another matter which I find far more interesting.
Did coun Richard Williams talk about "faceless people of Brussels and Strasbourg" ? Is he a Tory or a member of UKIP ? What precisely does ho means ? This sounds exactly like a comment what would come from a right-winger. What has the European Union – I presume this is what he is talking about – to do with either Plaid or the pay
rise for Caerffili council officals?
I must declare an interest, since 40 years ago, I was a member of the Harri Webb romantic republican faction of Plaid Cymru. I would have thought that the CCBC would minute meetings and record votes, so it should be easy to see which way Councillor Fussel had voted, if indeed there was a vote. Unless we know that, the level of arguement, is brought down to the level of many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Personally, I want facts not prejudice to control the discussion. From the outside, the way the CCBC seems to be run makes Fred Karno`s army look like a model of efficiency. It reminds me of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee who decided to have a battle since Tweedle Dum said Tweedle Dee had spoiled his nice new rattle.Come on you have Council to run.
In response to ‘Clive’ I am neither a Tory nor a member of UKIP but I would be willing to wager that he votes for Plaid Cymru and is probably a member. The EU has a lot to do with Plaid policy; I was reading Leanne Wood's views on why membership of this body is seen as essential to the aims of the self appointed 'party of Wales', this week. For the record I believe that the EU is undemocratic and Wales would be a better country if it were not a member.
John Owen is not alone in thinking that accurate, and complete, minutes and recording of votes occurs at council. The reality is somewhat different, votes are recorded only if a councillor requests that his or her vote is logged. The result is the mud slinging we are seeing now. The answer is simple – record all votes and there is no room for argument. I have already stated in these columns that I am perfectly happy for my vote to be recorded at council meetings.
I am told that Richard Williams is a Labour councillor – true? If so, maybe he fits in well with UKIP.
Ref the comments of Nig (above) – I am tempted to wonder what part of fantasy land is he living in?
Carwyn Jones called for transparency, but if the Labour controlled CCBC do not record votes or minute meetings how can you have transparency?, they should be reported to the Ombudsman for malpractice.
Right, Left, Center, Tory, Ukip, Labour, Plaid Cymru or Raving Loony Party.
Why is ` Colin` so fixated with the credentials of Councillor Richard Williams, who, I understand, simply by checking with Caerphilly Council, sits as an ` Elected` Independent Councillor, So, that`s cleared that up.
At least Councillor Williams is open, transparent, and accountable to the constituents who elected him in Caerphilly, it appears he is quite content to provide his full identity so that his constituents are aware of his views on civic issues.
Instead of deriding the credentials of upstanding contributors to these pages perhaps ` Colin` should give us his considered views on the same issues. Or, is he concerned this may actually identify his political credentials?.