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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 06/06/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,399
Location: Too close to Redbridge-i censorship
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We currently have a council that complains that it is short of cash. It ignores public opinion regarding disbandment of the Parks Police. It closes public conveniences under the pretext of saving money. It persists with a system that requires the public to telephone from car parks to pay by credit card simply because its own pay and display machines are not working. It closes public conveniences allegedly to save money, and it tries to charge for car parking for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Councillors fail to cut their own pay.
Is it not therefore somewhat contradictory that it continues to employ staff to censor contributions to this forum, and who diligently and assiduously stifle dissent in a manner that would be the envy of the Stasi or the KGB?
This allegedly award-winning forum (it must have been a booby prize!) is an utter waste of resources. The council should close it down and divert the money to some more pressing need than simply satisfying the vanity of certain people at the Town Hall.
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1 user thanked Morris Hickey for this useful post.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 04/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 564
Location: Redbridge Eye
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The lack of response says it all!
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 29/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 554
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Not only Councillors fail to cut their pay but the Management Board as well, despite the urging of the Minister Mr Pickles,its not as though they cant afford it their total renumeration is set out below.
Roger Hampson
Chief Executive £245,555 for 2010/11
Director of Finance £170,003
Director Childrens
Services £161,513
Director Environment £166,608
Director Community
Services £153,817
Director
Adult Services £153,817
Borough Solicitor £115,753
Is it this team that so lacked imagination that to institute the necessary cuts, they raised parking charges, made them applicable on Sundays, in parks and libraries, cut public toilets,cut lollipop men, closed day centres.raised meals on wheels costs and day care transport costs,all from the comfort of their gold plated jobs and pensions?
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1 user thanked dopeyf for this useful post.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 06/05/2008(UTC)
Posts: 38
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Wow, correct me if I'm wrong dopeyf but doesn't the council also pay employers N.I. contributions as well? which would bump these exorbitant figures up even more. The total outlay for the Parks Police budget would have been half of this sum. Halve their salary and keep P.P. as well. Job done !!
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 29/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 554
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chippyweed -The Employers N.I. contribution (between £2000 and £2500 each) is an additional charge on the borough, but of course,out of control of Officers, and they of course do not receive it.
However, the accounts throw up something else, in this year of cuts and restraint, the Chief Officer has been paid £10,251 more than last year,
(4.3% increase) despite the fact that all officers earning over £21,000 are not supposed to have an increase.
To add insult to injury, desite cuts and restraint the number of officers earning more than £50,000 per year has risen from 131 to 139!
It would be interesting to hear explanations.
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1 user thanked dopeyf for this useful post.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 18/07/2008(UTC)
Posts: 225
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Twoud indeed be interesting, but the silence is deafening.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 29/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 554
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Redimanager, perhaps you can persuede a Senior Officer to reply to the above requests, especially that of the £10.000 + increase in salary of the Chief Officer despite the supposed pay freeze.
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1 user thanked dopeyf for this useful post.
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 06/11/2011(UTC)
Posts: 4
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dopeyf;13325 wrote:Redimanager, perhaps you can persuede a Senior Officer to reply to the above requests, especially that of the £10.000 + increase in salary of the Chief Officer despite the supposed pay freeze. Do you honestly expect a response? From my experience elsewhere your senior officers will have only 2 priorities: 1) Protect their own pay and pension entitlement above all else 2) Ensure that any cuts are made to the most visible of services, so that the sheeple will dutifully blame those nasty tories in central government, somewhat forgetting how the last administration spent all the money and vastly reduced our ability to borrow in the future.
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1 user thanked cannedtuna for this useful post.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 12/12/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,023
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As a Council we spend hundreds of millions of pounds a year on essential services like schools and social services and many of those responsible for these multi-million pound budgets are those earning more than £50,000.
We need the best possible people to deliver the best possible services to our local community and this means salaries need to be competitive.
We set our senior pay policy with regard to the market rates and Redbridge has one of the leanest senior management structures in London.
We believe that we offer good value for money especially when these salaries are compared to those in the private sector. The national pay award for these senior staff has been zero since 2008 and during that time inflation has been steadily increasing. Therefore in real terms, pay for these staff has fallen. Any significant increases in pay are for people taking on new, more demanding roles.
The Council is committed to driving down costs and keeping council tax as low as possible while delivering the best possible services to its residents. We have an excellent record of making efficiency savings and in the past year the Council has reduced the number of top posts by four, and removed more than £2 million worth of senior and middle management costs.”
Posted by Redbridgei Manager on behalf of Finance and Resources
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 04/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 564
Location: Redbridge Eye
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redimanager;13334 wrote:As a Council we spend hundreds of millions of pounds a year on essential services like schools and social services and many of those responsible for these multi-million pound budgets are those earning more than £50,000.
We need the best possible people to deliver the best possible services to our local community and this means salaries need to be competitive.
We set our senior pay policy with regard to the market rates and Redbridge has one of the leanest senior management structures in London.
We believe that we offer good value for money especially when these salaries are compared to those in the private sector. The national pay award for these senior staff has been zero since 2008 and during that time inflation has been between steadily increasing. Therefore in real terms, pay for these staff has fallen. Any significant increases in pay are for people taking on new, more demanding roles.
The Council is committed to driving down costs and keeping council tax as low as possible while delivering the best possible services to its residents. We have an excellent record of making efficiency savings and in the past year the Council has reduced the number of top posts receiving by four, and removed more than £2 million worth of senior and middle management costs.”
Posted by Redbridgei Manager on behalf of Finance and Resources
Are Finance and Resources as good with arithmetic as they are at proof reading?
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 06/06/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,399
Location: Too close to Redbridge-i censorship
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Censored again some time after 15.46.
CENSORSHIP GONE MAD.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 04/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 564
Location: Redbridge Eye
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Perhaps Redimanager was distracted by this rather nice Handbag as advertised on CannedTuna's link to Acorn Accessories? 
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 06/11/2011(UTC)
Posts: 4
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Well, It's certainly nice of you to advertise my quality merchandise  even if you didn't request use of my copyright of the image. I didn't realise that a little 'www' which no-one is forced to click can be considered to be 'advertising', and I have attempted to keep on-topic to a far greater extent than you yourself have managed... ... now what's this about pay freezes being harsh in the light of mild inflation? Have you seen the steps Ireland has had to take in light of similar political-banking thievery - actual cuts of 20% with real-term cuts nearer to 25%
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 20/11/2007(UTC)
Posts: 349
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The Tuna got you there - ha -( handbag too).. well said
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 06/11/2011(UTC)
Posts: 4
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julie bradley;13346 wrote:The Tuna got you there - ha -( handbag too).. well said Cheers. I thought he was using the handbag in a touching homage to Mrs Thatcher myself.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 20/11/2007(UTC)
Posts: 349
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Do you mean instead of sand bagged its now hand bagged!
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 12/12/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,023
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weggis;13335 wrote:redimanager;13334 wrote:As a Council we spend hundreds of millions of pounds a year on essential services like schools and social services and many of those responsible for these multi-million pound budgets are those earning more than £50,000.
We need the best possible people to deliver the best possible services to our local community and this means salaries need to be competitive.
We set our senior pay policy with regard to the market rates and Redbridge has one of the leanest senior management structures in London.
We believe that we offer good value for money especially when these salaries are compared to those in the private sector. The national pay award for these senior staff has been zero since 2008 and during that time inflation has been between steadily increasing. Therefore in real terms, pay for these staff has fallen. Any significant increases in pay are for people taking on new, more demanding roles.
The Council is committed to driving down costs and keeping council tax as low as possible while delivering the best possible services to its residents. We have an excellent record of making efficiency savings and in the past year the Council has reduced the number of top posts receiving by four, and removed more than £2 million worth of senior and middle management costs.”
Posted by Redbridgei Manager on behalf of Finance and Resources
Are Finance and Resources as good with arithmetic as they are at proof reading? Thanks Weggis, we have amended the original post.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 19/12/2007(UTC)
Posts: 142
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As I said on another thread, doesn't anybody proof read the "official" stuff that goes on here?
There are also spelling mistakes throughout the whole darn website!
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 14/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 975
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Two points:
1. Quote form above: ''reduced the number of top posts receiving by four''
Forgive me for being thick but, what on earth does that mean?
2. Thanks to weggis' eagle eye, my attention was drawn to a handsome handbag advertised on a website promoting the sale of fancy goods. Surely, the Council could put a disclaimer to emphasise they do not give their seal of approval to any goods advertised on their website without their permission?
I know the Council promotes the sale of composting bins, etc,... but that, surely, is different.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 29/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 554
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I would like to thank Redimanager for eliciting a response and Finance for the response, however I have to take issue with the fact that they have not answered the questions.
Let us examine the answer
“We need the best possible people to deliver the best possible services to our local community and this means salaries need to be competitive.We set our senior pay policy with regard to the market rates and Redbridge has one of the leanest senior management structures in London.”
For the year 2009/2010(Last complete available) out of 433 Councils The Chief Officer ranks as the 33rd highest paid.
The Finance Director Ranks as 14th highest, and certainly some of those above him have greater responsibilities.
Many of the highest paid run large conurbations, therefore the cost per head of residents, puts both these Officers very close to the top of the pile.
It is for Councillors to decide whether this represents “value for money” and exactly how competitive salaries need to be. However more than 400 out of 433 Councils find these “market rates” completely unacceptable.
“We have an excellent record of making efficiency savings and in the past year the Council has reduced the number of top posts receiving by four, and removed more than £2 million worth of senior and middle management costs.”
The removal of £2 million worth of senior and middle management, is mainly due to the removal of Leisure and Culture personnel to “Vision” an accounting procedure to replace people and salaries with a management fee paid to Vision.
One has also question why if some £2 million of middle management has been removed WHY has the number of £50,000 p.a Officers risen from 131 to 139?
There appears to be no answer to the fact that the renumeration of Chief Officer rose by £10,000 in the 2010/2011 year.
“The national pay award for these senior staff has been zero since 2008”
The Chief Executive’s salary in 2007/8 (from the Accounts) was in the range £130,000-139,999 his Salary from 2010/11 Accounts on the same basis was £181,542
The Finance Director’s salary in 2007/8 (from the Accounts) was in the range £120,000-£129,999 his salary from 2010/11 Accounts on the same basis £138,152.
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