Increase Councillor Pay by 16.9% and get better candidates
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In your article last November you put “Candidates who are elected next year could earn a basic salary of £16,800 if new proposals are taken forward, in a move that has been described as a ‘significant reset’ to attract a diverse range of people choosing to stand.”
Today it was “Wrexham council election: 138 candidates fighting election with eight others already elected with no competition”
There are 146 candidates officially nominated, a decrease on the 155 candidates who stood five years ago.
It made me laugh that Current Council Leader, Mark Pritchard, (Independent, Esclusham) is once again not facing any opposition, having been the only candidate for his ward back in 2012. I told Fat Daz that he should have applied. How many pies and pints he could get with a basic salary of £16,800 if new proposals are taken forward?
Back in the day Councillors did the job for love of their community. Now they are chucking a mountain of dosh at them to get some interest in applying. JOKERS!
It will be interesting to see if votes for 16 year olds will have an effect, they could be a really powerful force if they can be persuaded to go out to vote. Where there are a several candidates and a low turn out, a handful of extra votes could really change the political skyline. But of course they must take the first step and get their names on the electoral role, before they are eligible to cast that vote !
Looks like we will have a lot of Councilors elected on less than about 15% of the potential electorate where an Election will take place. Will be interesting to see what that various Political Parties put manifestos and what change they will do but with few Labour candidates than previous it does not look like we will see anything new. Lots of Independent Councillors who will have a very local issue to champion but have no idea about pan county issues such as Education and Social Care. Basically, Council Members who cannot be brought to account as they have not signed up to a pan Wrexham manifesto.
I despise candidates who put themselves forward standing on an Independent ticket to be selected as a Councillor and once elected, join an Independent group.
To me, to do that, defies all morality and trust.Same goes for recognised party candidates who, at a whim, jump ship and join the Independent gravy train.
Wrexham will never amount to anything whilst there is no effective opposition and how can there be when recognised procedures and practices are tossed out by (and I use the term advisedly) a ‘select’ few?
The Independents join a Group in order that they have spaces on Scrutiny and also then have the chance of becoming a committee chair (which of course comes with an increased financial allowance) – this applies for the so called unaligned as well — without being in a group they serve little purpose as their voice will never be heard.
“……….as their voice will never be heard”
They would if the Council returned to decisions being made by full Council rather than a hand picked clique of 10 ardent followers.
The Executive system does not work effectively as elected members are stifled from making a contribution at every turn.May i remind you of the meeting to decide on the City status bid?
East Cheshire did away with the Executive/Cabinet style of Council so it can be done, as always if there is a will, a way can be found. The Full Council making decisions would make the position of Councillor more meaningful and fulfilling.
Fully agree with Wrexview and Benjimin – we have a democratic electoral process that supports an undemocratic form of governance. We can hope that a new cohort of Council Members make take this as a top priority for change.
increase the pay to at least 30k, otherwise keep getting the jokers we have now. Personally I wouldn’t consider it for less that 45k.
Pastylover I agree with you that decent pay will attract decent candidates – Council Member have a responsibility and oversight of a budget of £150 million + , large workforce, failing services and a list of projects needing millions to be spent just to stand still
Looking at the list of candidates there appear to be a number of ‘nice’ people who have an ‘interest’ in the Town but very few have any management experience who went through a job interview for the role instead of an election would have no chance of even being shortlisted.
The numbers standing under a Political Party banner have gone up for Plaid and Conservative but dramatic drop in Labour being unable to field even the same number of candidates as the last election and of course Independents being the highest number.
The election will again see Personality Politics take place in Wrexham – prediction is that Mark Pritchard (who is unopposed) will remain as Leader and his Independent Group (which could expand as the Dave Bithell Independents fall by the wayside) will align with Labour to create a coalition. This will remove the Conservatives from the current coalition based on the past years clashes and poor Plaid despite fielding more candidates will be totally side-lined due to personality issues.
The average Council Member that is elected will only have about 18% of the potential electorate in their area- the current Executive structure of 10 ‘decision makers’ will remain until at least 2023/24 leaving 46 Council Members with a limited voice..
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