Police & Crime Commissioner recruiting £80,000 Chief of Staff

by Lisa Reeves

Wednesday 5^th April 2017

Wed 5^th Apr 2017

The Police & Crime Commissioner for Cheshire, David Keane, is currently seeking to appoint a Chief of Staff to his team to assist in the delivery of his Police and Crime Plan over the next four years.

This appointment will be on a permanent contract and the successful candidate will receive a salary of £75,591 to £80,688 along with 31 days annual leave, plus bank holidays and the option of a pension.

Working for the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner based in Stockton Heath, the successful candidate will be the lead member of the PCC senior management team, undertaking the role of the Chief Executive Officer and monitoring officer.

This followers the recent controversial appointment of a Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner for Cheshire on a salary of £50,000.

Speaking last month David Keane said: "I am delighted to announce that Sareda Dirir will take up the role of Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner from March 2017. Sareda is the first Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner in the county to be appointed following an open and competitive recruitment process."

However, there has been much criticism of her appointment. The issue of independence was raised during an interview with Cheshire Police and Crime Panel as her parents and the Commissioner are fellow Labour councillors for the Penketh and Cuerdley ward on Warrington Borough Council and she has known him for about 20 years, which the Commissioner apparently did not tell the panel.

Additionally, the Cheshire Police and Crime Panel, were not provided with her CV for the interview during which her behaviour was described as 'aggressive' and 'defensive'.

John Dwyer, the former Police & Crime Commissioner for Cheshire, appointed Margaret Ollerenshaw, the former Chairman of the Police Authority, as his deputy towards the end of 2012. Her remuneration was £22,500, 30% of the salary of the Commissioner, based on an average three days per week.

Tags:: Cheshire Police & Crime Commissioner, David Keane

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Pete Taylor

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 3:49 pm

Beyond belief.

Nick Jones

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 4:15 pm

Keane is on about £75K, Dirir from her dodgy appointment £50K and now a Chief of Staff (I ask you!) @ £80K, plus pensions, plus NI, plus cars pension etc. Then the sheer cheek to put the precept up to get more cops on the street... ??? Looks like this is another diversion of the public purse to keep cops off the street and smug socialists in a comfy re-opened police station at Stockton heath just for their private purpose...for all the wrong reasons . Who is watching who here ??? Wrong on so many levels.. beyond contempt . I imagine a family friend is in the wings waiting to be appointed again !

Simon Worthington

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 4:17 pm

Eight weeks off a year and £80K. Surely a rethink is necessary if this shower are going to cost us over £250,000pa. That is around 6 or 7 officers we can't afford.

Barry Stafford

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 4:26 pm

This whole operation stinks!!! Jobs for the boys,or girls.Who do we contact to start an official enquiry?? I originally thought this was a good idea.Then we got a lot of ex cops,ie retired already on big pensions. Now its Councillors and cronies. Baz

Vic Barlow

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 5:09 pm

We need to get George Osborne on the case. Err...on second thoughts maybe not.

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 5:18 pm

I think the PCC has around 16 staff; you may feel a need to ask him about the cost and number: http://bit.ly/2oapBdn

Manuel Golding

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 5:35 pm

Our MP has been made fully aware. He has been asked to forward the concern to the Home Secretary p.d.q.

Barry Buxton

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 5:37 pm

How can this champagne socialist spendthrift be stopped from wasting our money and brought to account?!

Tim Mullock

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 6:05 pm

A complete waste of money

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 6:17 pm

From Gov.uk;
To complain about your PCC

You can also contact the IPCC directly.

IPCC
Telephone: 0300 020 0096
Minicom: 020 7404 0431
Fax: 020 7404 0430

DELETED ACCOUNT

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 7:04 pm

Meanwhile, Cheshire Police have launched their "Vulnerable Adult Missing Person's Profile" (the Herbert Protocol), and the IPCC has got himself into the photo for this. I suspect this will be the first of a number of police initiatives that the PCC will use as a photocall, - especially when Ms Dirir takes over as his Deputy with her experience in the media and journalism.

Alan Brough

Wednesday 5^th April 2017 at 7:18 pm

I think that Mr Keane's apparent reluctance to offer any explanation on the appointment of Ms Dirir speaks volumes, and brings considerable disrepute on both his role and his office.

Hopefully, an Inspector calls!

Mark Goldsmith

Thursday 6^th April 2017 at 11:13 am

Labour raising the bar in the "Money Wasting Stakes" set by the previous IPCC.

Time to scrap all IPCC's now. The experiment has failed and they are not contributing anywhere near enough to justify their massive running costs. Instead put the money saved back into front line staff.

Friday 7^th April 2017 at 7:00 am

I'm not sure why "champagne socialism" and "Labour" are being dragged into this debate; clearly this bloke is an opportunistic idiot, just like his predecessor.
The PCC is a stupid American concept, it was not needed here and, as has been proven all over the country, it does not work.