Councillor Michael Hoy writes here about changes in the County Council cabinet.
There are now ten cabinet members and eleven deputy cabinet members but the changes really throw up some important issues.
Council Leader David Finch has a deputy cabinet member to his position which is very strange as surely that role belongs to the Deputy Leader Kevin Bentley, who himself has two deputies of his own.
With 21 members of the Conservative party now either a Cabinet Member or a Deputy exactly half of their elected members are involved in Cabinet and receiving enhanced allowances paid on top of the standard allowance for Councillors (Full Member ?34,378; Deputy Member ?13,374).
Note that two of our local County Councillors – Malcolm Maddocks and Terry Cutmore – are now deputy Cabinet Members
So just to clarify. A District Councillor can also be a County Councillor and draw allowances and expenses for both roles? In neither instance is it a “full time job”, so they could also have a day job as well. Looking at the figures quoted above it suddenly becomes very clear why asking them to do away with the Cabinet system would be a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. There are people slaving away at a full time job for long hours that don’t earn the allowance given to a Full Member, yet they have to pay Council Tax so that Councillors can get more in allowances than their annual salary – something very very rotten in the State of Denmark when that is the case.
Christine -spotted in my old Mum’s Daily Mirror today :-
243 in the House of Lords are ex MP’s, Party workers or Aides, 195 of them are ex MP’s…………….jobs for the boys or what !!!!!!!!.
How they have got away with for years I don’t know…….JIM.
At least Cllr Malcolm Maddocks had the decency to do the right thing and resign from his post on the District Executive in order to properly be able to fulfill his new role at County.
Let’s be clear about this – Cllr Terry Cutmore currently holds the (profitable) positions of Leader of Rochford District Council and Deputy Cabinet Member at Essex County Council. How is it possible for one man to hold so many high profile, time demanding, positions of responsibility? And more importantly, how is it possible for him to divide his time fairly between these demanding roles to ensure he continues to respond in the best interests of residents? As I said to him in May “When one decides to increase the number of spinning plates they control, it is inevitable that some of those plates will start to drop”…
Now for the sums: RDC Members basic allowance = £4250 / Leader of the Council = £21,250 / Essex County Councillors basic allowance = £11,500 / Deputy Cabinet Member Allowance = £13,374
So, if my maths are correct… Before adding on any travel and subsistence claims he makes, Cllr Terry Cutmore is currently earning a rather nice £50,374 from his combined council duties!! [EDITED]