Cheshire East Council has published details of the allowances paid to elected members of the council. The figures published cover the financial year, from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
They include the basic allowance, the special responsibility allowance, dependants' carers' allowances, travel and subsistence and co-optees' allowances.
These allowances represent a reimbursement for the time and personal costs incurred by elected members while carrying out their responsibilities on behalf of the council and the people of Cheshire East.
Cheshire East is a large unitary authority, with 82 elected members, and the total cost of allowances is proportionate and in line with most other unitary authorities in England.
Members of the public can view the schedule of allowances paid on the council's website alongside the scheme of member's allowances, which outlines how any percent increase in officer pay may also be applied to members.
Comments
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Draft Statement of Accounts 23-24 (cheshireeast.gov.uk)
Fear not. CEC have recently appointed Adele Taylor as Interim Finance Boss on a salary of £1298 per day.
I am sure she will be straining every sinew to find ways in which they can reduce cost and improve services for us, their long-suffering customers.
If you want to see what our new CEO has been doing and how CEC will transform itself, then please read the documents in the link below.
https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/documents/g10644/Public%20reports%20pack%2021st-Aug-2024%2017.30%20Corporate%20Policy%20Committee.pdf?T=10
It shows the wholesale changes to fix the organisational issues that have existed since CEC was established in 2009.
When 'Independent' councillors took over the running of CEC in 2019, we fixed its culture and governance. That stopped the scandals. Now we are fixing it operationally.
We would have liked this to happen sooner, but it was delayed by the Pandemic, closely followed by the financial tsunami from record inflation. However, the transformational process has now started and will be completed, even if the council goes into Section 114 (a form of council bankruptcy). Therefore, we will have fulfilled our election pledge to "Change Cheshire East".
This transformational process will ensure CEC becomes a much more efficient, responsive and transparent council. So, instead of its previous 1,000 page plan, I envisage giving residents a single side of A4 that says:
- The councils key tasks
- Their planned level of delivery
- Their actual level of performance
Clearly, simply, accurately. So we all know what CEC should be doing (and what not), how it does it and where it can improve. We will all know if CEC is well managed or not.
So this is the final piece of the puzzle needed to change CEC into the type of council we have wanted to see, for so long.
Best regards
Mark
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
Thanks for your response.
I have read the first 20 pages of the over 200 pages in your link and (frankly) so far I'm uninspired.
I will continue to read through the document because I really want to understand the process by which CEC will make the root and branch changes necessary to restructure an organisation that has (in recent years) become victim to corruption, complacency and a sense of contempt for the people that it was put in place to serve.
Having covered 20 pages I already read that Ringway Jacobs continue to "mark their own homework" when it comes to complaints about highway issues. I also see that CEC felt that it wasn't cost efficient to train apprentices, yet it paid £3,600,000 to 237 agency workers during Q4 '23/24.
Perhaps I should wait for your single sheet of A4 because those first 20 pages certainly aren't "clearly, simply, accurately" describing anything. They are mired with typical "Councilspeak" verbosity that arouses thoughts of obfuscation in simple folk such as I.