In April 2013 Cheshire East Council announced the first wave of appointments to a new senior management team, which replaced the previous structure at the top of the organisation.
At the time fifteen members of staff were appointed to new senior management posts, which was the first stage of a much wider review of all management roles and responsibilities at the Council.
The Council stated that the "new approach is intended to ensure more effective and better value-for-money services for local residents and businesses in Cheshire East. Overall management costs will be cut by £5m a year as part of this, which the Council says will do away with the "outdated and unhelpful professional 'silos' within the organisation, which created bureaucracy, waste and delay in making the positive differences to quality of life that local people want to see".
As the result of a Freedom of Information Request we can reveal that only four of these fifteen senior managers remain employed by Cheshire East Council.
Three of them have left the Council having accepted voluntary redundancy costing tax payers nearly half a million pounds.
First to accept voluntary redundancy was Paul Bradshaw. He was a severence package of £78,388 having held the position of Head of Organisational Development for just 15 months.
Lorraine Butcher departed in July 2015 with a package worth just under £100,000 for her 27 months as Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning. Thirdly, Heather Grimbaldeston took voluntary redundancy from her role as Director of Public Health this month with a severance package of £296,738.
Four other senior managers have resigned since April 2013: Vivienne Quayle, Head of Commercial Strategy, Business Innovation and Performance left in October 2013 after six months in the role; Tony Crane, Director of Children's Services left in May 2015; Caroline Simpson, Director of Economic Growth and Prosperity left in April 2016 and Brenda Smith, Director of Adult Social Care and Independent Living left Cheshire East Council in June 2016.
In 2014 Kevin Melling, Head of Environment Protection and Enhancement, and Peter Hartwell, Head of Public Protection and Enforcement, were transferred to ANSA - a new company set up in April 2014 to deliver waste and recycling services for Cheshire East Council.
Whilst Rachel Musson, Interim Chief Operating Officer, and Mike Rowan, Interim Monitoring Officer and Head of Legal Services, left in 2013 when their temporary employment came to an end.
That leaves four of the senior management team created in April 2013 as current employees: Nigel Moorhouse, Head of Early Intervention and Prevention; Brian Reed, Head of Democratic Services and Governance; Mike Suarez, Chief Executive and Steph Cordon, Head of Communities.
Comments
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If I had any choice, I wouldn't buy my local authority services from this thoroughly useless organisation. And as more services are commissioned, maybe it is possible to open up local govt to competition? Just like utilities and the railways... Ummm, maybe not? :-(
If collectively we withheld our council taxes as a perfectly legitimate demonstration of our anger, the council would very quickly run out of money to squander.
If the tax is not payed in very short order the council will send a reminders, then a final notice; then they will issue a summons to obtain further financial information about the you, make an attachment of earnings order, use bailiffs to seize goods. The council can also apply to bankrupt you.
Don't expect to be appeal directly to the magistrate though as the summons probably never saw the inside of a court, most councils don't bother with such inconveniences as court procedures. They just issue them in bulk themselves. When I mentioned bailiffs, they're probably hired debt collectors, they just call themselves bailiffs. The council can't use bailiffs as they don't haven't a proper liability order signed by a judge or magistrate and sealed in court as its all done by the council themselves - thats how efficient (some would say dishonest) it is lol.
Just to cheer you up, just thinking of all the council tax money they have just given away in this latest exercise in lets play being a PLC. Pensions, they'll still be receiving these as well years down the line.
Finally, If you stripped out block government grants and other incomes the council gets - HALF your council tax goes to council pensions! So a small estate, as you mentioned is pin money - try half the borough and your probably getting closer. Have a good day.
It would be very interesting if we could somehow investigate how these unbelievable contracts were given to exec staff in the first place - the salaries are hard to believe but the redundancy payments (esp after so few years in employment) feel almost fraudulent. And didn't one senior elected member recently lose his job for dubious contract award?
this piece which has been published here http://bit.ly/2cjoK5z