Concern over Cheshire East CEO's salary (From Knutsford Guardian)

Concern over Cheshire East CEO's salary

12:14pm Thursday 9th August 2012 in Letters

CHESHIRE has undergone changes in its size and governance since I was young. A large part of the Wirral was ceded to Liverpool, and most recently the rest of the county was split in two, Cheshire East and Cheshire West.

I assume this recent decision was made ‘in the interests of economy and efficiency’. Each of these two authorities is of course responsible for only a proportion of the area administered hitherto by the original Cheshire Council.

The old council was presided over by a chief executive officer, doubtless earning a substantial salary.

Now we have two CEOs, one for East and one for West. Presumably their salaries amount to rather less than that of their single predecessor, to reflect the dramatic reduction in their scope of responsibility. Cheshire East’s CEO has just retired after nearly four years in the job, and four months sick leave, with a ‘golden handshake’ of £93,000. The Guardian disclosed that before taking into account her pension benefits and expenses she was in receipt of £189,260 per annum.

Never mind the £800,000 squandered on the Lyme Green project referred to in the report. I am concerned at the moment to know how the salary of Cheshire West’s CEO compares with Cheshire East’s, and taking the salaries of the two CEOs together, how much the total stands in relation to the salary of their single predecessor, who presided over the whole of the county?

In the meantime, I await my next council tax demand with little relish.

JOHN BURKE Free Green Lane, Lower Peover