The top person overseeing South Holland District Council looks set to get a wage increase – though the authority has no say in it.
Since the formation of the South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership, the district council has shared a chief executive officer with Boston Borough and East Lindsey District Council.
Like all shared roles in the partnership, South Holland pays 31 per cent of the wage Boston 23 per cent and East Lindsey 51 per cent.
Last Wednesday, at a meeting of East Lindsey District Council in Horncastle, that authority voted on changes to the remuneration of the chief executive position.
The discussion was not held in public due to it being a ‘human resources’ matter.
The Voice asked what kind of rise from the current wage of £135,000 to £140,000 was involved, but has not received an answer.
A spokesman for the partnership however did confirm that the vote by East Lindsey councillors was the only one taking place and that their colleagues at both South Holland and Boston will not be getting a say on the matter.
The leader of South Holland District Council Coun Nick Worth confirmed his councillors wouldn’t vote on the remuneration but he said that it still provided ‘exceptionally good value for money’ for his authority which is currently facing a financial over-spend of around £350,000 for the current financial year.
He argued that paying 31 per cent, which amounted to just under £46,600 previously at most for the most recent salary, was still better than paying £144,000 for a CEO of its own as it had previously done.
“East Lindsey have always been the employing authority,” Coun Worth said. “We are where are with it but I’d look at the bigger picture.
“A chief executive officer gets anywhere between £140,000 and £150,000 and that’s only over-seeing one council.
“Our CEO is covering three councils. It’s not quite a unitary authority but it’s similar, so we should be looking for a figure between £140,000 and that of the CEO of a unitary council.
“In my view though South Holland District Council is still better off as we are only paying about a third of that.
“Therefore, as a council, we’re getting exceptionally good value for money.
“If we had a CEO ourselves it would cost the authority much more.”
The current CEO of the South and East Lincolnshire Partnership is Rob Barlow who, before the creation of the partnership, carried out the role only for East Lindsey.
The leader of the opposition at SHDC, South Holland Independents’ Coun Rob Gibson was unaware of the remuneration action.
He said: “The partnership is supposed to be equal.
“I’m surprised that someone could have a pay rise without all three councils having some sort of opinion.
“When you have someone with that kind of money at a time when people are struggling to pay their electricity bills or using food banks it doesn’t look great.
“I guess though Rob needs to answer those questions and show he’s good value to run the three councils.”
l For more on the South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership turn to page three.
