Campaigndemandscuts in town hall pay

A PRESSURE group is demanding an end to the massive salaries paid to the East Riding Council’s top officers.

East Yorkshire Eye wants to see an immediate 30 per cent cut in senior management pay at the council and is calling for a cap on local government pensions, with individuals limited to up to 50,000 per year.

The group has presented a petition to the council backed by 10 local electors which should enable them to appear before a council scrutiny commitee.

The campaigners say the taxpayer is subsidising East Riding Council local government pensions to the tune of 22m a year and that employees should pay larger contributions.

Chairman Rick Sumner said in the current climate every taxpayer’s pound had to go further: “This is not aimed at ordinary workers – there are a lot of very good people working in the council – but we think it is top heavy with over-paid bureaucrats, some of whom are on over 100,000, which is an obscene amount of money.

“There are people in local government who are earning more than the Prime Minister, for goodness sake.”

In 2008 more than 1,000 people signed petitions against the huge pay rises awarded to senior officers at East Riding Council. They included an extra 9,000 for chief executive Nigel Pearson, taking his salary to 162,000.

Four directors also got rises of almost 12,000, up from 111,000.

Huge deficits in local government pension schemes in Yorkshire had helped push up the shortfall nationally to more than 53bn, 27 per cent more than the previous financial year.

Among the largest black holes are 715m at Leeds City Council, 496m at Sheffield City Council and 388m at Hull City Council.

The council declined to comment.