NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE
Chief Executives earning over £100,000! It’s ‘disgusting’ and ‘obscene’ according to members of the public.
But the Chief Secretary and the ‘sprinkling’ of CEOs in Manx government Departments can heave a sigh of relief because the comments were directed at Highlands Council Chief Executive, Steve Barron.
Steve earns £143,000 and made the mistake of taking to Facebook to ask people if they would be prepared to pay a bit more Council tax to keep services running.
Immediately there was a torrent of protest not least about Steve’s six figure salary with one poster saying ‘That’s an obscene amount’ another, more mildly said that’s ‘far too much’.
Highlands Council is a bit like the Isle of Man they are having difficulty balancing the books and what do you do if you have a shortfall well you cut services and then lean on the least well off to pay more – sound familiar?
In Mann recently John Shimmin MHK (Minister without a Department) was justifying the six figure sums our senior administrative officers get – although that didn’t go down well with the public either. Good job he didn’t go on line and ask for a few opinions!
John said he wanted to dispel myths about ‘fat cats’ and that their were only ‘seven civil servants’ paid over £100.000. Well I don’t want to get into semantics over this but I think John will find there’s quite a few more if you use the term ‘public servants’.
I mean did he include ‘the quangos’ including that one which has just put the arm on the public to go to the toilet?
Back in the Highlands; to give Steve Barron a bit of credit (cue more anger from Highland citizens) he is responsible for an area of 26,484 sq miles with a population of 232,000. It is in fact the largest local authority area in Britain. It’s got a workforce of about 10,000 workers – more than the IOM.
While Steve is way out in front Highland Council salary wise there are still five others who come in with over £100,000 a year as well – still I think the Isle of Man beat them on that score again – even using John’s dodgy figures.
Hmm! Makes you think about those six figure salaries here – again!
BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Celtic News
02/12/15
THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE
The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues