Recent figures have shown that Cheshire East Council has more employees earning in excess of £100,000 than any other local authority in the north west.
According to this year's Town Hall Rich List, published by The TaxPayers' Alliance, Cheshire East Council had 20 employees who received remuneration in excess of £100,000 in 2016-17.
The biggest remuneration package of £374,159 in this region was received by Cheshire East's Director of Public Health who is unnamed in the report but at the time the position was held by Heather Grimbaldeston. She who took voluntary redundancy from her role as Director of Public Health in August 2016 with a severance package of £296,738.
The second highest paid officer at Cheshire East was Mike Suarez, who earnt £226,180, including employer's pension contributions of £43,730. He is still employed by the council but has been suspended from his role since April 2017.
The Chief Operating Officer, who again is unnamed in the report, received £177,144 including employer's pension contributions of £39,178. Peter Bates held the position at this time but was suspended in December 2017, following a meeting of Cheshire East Council's investigation and disciplinary committee.
Cheshire East ranked 9th in the united Kingdom with 20 staff members in receipt of £100,000 remuneration or more. The table was topped by City of London who had 31 employees earning over £100,000 and Wandsworth Coucil with 30.
In comparison Cheshire West and Chester had 13 staff members in receipt of £100,000 remuneration or more in 2016-17.
Total remuneration includes but is not limited to salary, benefits in kind, expenses, bonuses, any stated election duty fees, redundancy payments and employer' s pension contributions.
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But in true, blue, tory Cheshire - where the apocryphal monkey wearing a blue rosette really WOULD get voted-in, the electorate are collectively cocking their pistol, taking steady aim, and preparing to shoot..........themselves in the foot!
There just aren't sufficient people who know or care enough about the appalling misconduct, underperformance and staggering cost of this sham council to do anything other than unthinkingly put a cross against any name preceded by that rather telling three letter word "CON"
Huge sums of money are then wasted on directors who would be considered unemployable outside the fantasy world of local government.
Ex Legal Services Director, Bill Norman has what could best be described as a controversial past, a fact that can be verified quiet easily. In any sane environment, his ability to attract negative attention from the press and the public would exclude him from the list of potential employees. At Cheshire East it made him the ideal candidate for the job.
Come on councillors - stand up and be counted by your electorate. Do your jobs. Get our roads and all the other services sorted before taking receipt of your fat pay checks each month.
Maybe then, just maybe, we'd have nothing to moan about............