88 Barnsley council staff on £50,000+

Coun S J Webber, (Penistone Town Council) sent this letter to The Star.

A few home truths we presume.....

REPORTS into local authority management pay illustrates graphically how the local government gravy train has made several unscheduled and completely un-necessary stops in Barnsley over the past years.
Figures show that the number of BMBC staff paid more than £50,000 per annum has risen sharply from 15 to 88 over the period 1996-97 to 2006-07, with a total pay bill to these 88 members alone of just over £5.3 million (as a contrast, the adjacent Sheffield Council numbers have risen from 12 to 79 in the same period).

Looking at the figures in slightly more detail we see some startling differences: Barnsley has 88 such members for a population of 223,500 while Sheffield can manage with 79 for 525,800 residents; Harrogate, a much wealthier area, has 12 for its population of 157,800.

The cost per rate payer is thus £24.74 in Barnsley, £10.09 in Sheffield and £5.01 in Harrogate.

The Labour leadership in Barnsley tell us they are so short of cash that they cannot even manage to keep open much-needed care homes like Green Park House in Penistone, they cannot manage to keep the roads repaired or the drains cleared but they can overspend on the Civic Hall project by £7 million. They also have no difficulty spending £1.9 million on publicity – no doubt aimed at telling us how good they are at managing our money!

Barnsley ratepayers should be asking if this is value for money and indeed whether, in the light of BMBC's current financial position, this is not excessive in the extreme.

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