Plaid Cymru Slam ‘Secret’ Pay Deal For Wrexham Council Chief Exec

Last month we noticed that it was that time again for the Council to hear the recommendations of the Pay and Reward Panel for Senior Pay, which as usual was to be held behind closed doors – with no press or public present.

Although the process itself has not changed and is usual practise to exclude the press and public we highlighted it as it seemed it was not common knowledge.

Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru’s AM for North Wales, went a step further and said he would like to see the ‘secret’ report published for all to see.

In our article we referred to the Council’s Pay Policy Statement (PDF here) and quoted the Chief Executive’s current pay. This information is also clearly stated on the Council’s public website – here:

Chief Executive – “The current salary of the post is £105,000. The salary falls within a range of 4 incremental points between £105,000, rising to a maximum of £117,500.”

Plaid Cymru last night said “The new pay scale runs up to £125,000 a year for Wrexham Council’s chief executive – an increase from the £117,000 maximum pay increment she can currently earn.”

Mr Gruffydd said “When I asked for details of this new pay scale, the council refused and Labour leader Neil Rogers accused me of being mischievous. He also stated ‘No senior officers’ pay at this authority has been increased’.

“It’s clear now why the council was so keen to debate this behind closed doors. Labour and their Tory/Democratic Independent Group allies approved the £8,000 increase in pay increments. The council leader’s comments about pay increases were misleading to say the least. With the bulk of council workers facing pay freezes, it’s one rule for the top few earners and another for the rest.”

Councillor David Bithell, Leader of Wrexham Independent Group who put an amendment to council not to accept the pay award, said “We did not support any increases to senior officers’ pay, especially when Wrexham council’s workforce have had a pay freeze for the last three years. It’s not right and morally wrong. People in senior positions should set example to the rest of the workforce and refuse this rise.”