"We are all in it together," as David Cameron said. So it is nice to see that not only the poor is suffering but those at the richer end of our society. According to the Newbury Weekly News "17 top-earning district council staff cost taxpayers £1.84 million". Top earner was Chief executive Nick Carter whose annual salary - in 2009 - £133,418. But the cost of his position increased to £175,860 by the time his £5,000 car allowance, employer's pension and national insurance contribution were added. The minimum salary of a senior civil servant is £58,200 while an MPs wages is £65, 738. Our PM (who runs the whole country) gets only £142,500. Nick Carter gets approximately £33,000 more than the MP. So I can see the suffering and sacrificed he has made so that we can all be in it together. Of course I could add that the director of environment - John Ashworth - only gets £133,066, but I won't. So I say to you hard earning tax payers in the West Berkshire region to spare a thought for those that have sacrificed so much for us and being part of those that are suffering and tightening their belts. So let us give a silent prayer to those 17 top-earners at our Tax payers' expense. We are all in it together.

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools" Martin luther King.

"We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separetly" Benjamin Franklin

Oh come on GMR! Worth every penny. After all what would happen if he wasn't there? Doesn't bear thinking about. Yet it could so easily happen. He would go elsewhere else, like S****horpe or Clacton, and then where would we be? No one to sign Mr Ashworth's expenses or leave chits, No one to ask the Directors to see that Department Heads check the Section Heads are ensuring the Team Leaders are making sure the the Officers are giving the Chargehands the right instructions to the workers putting up road signs and the like. Its all pressure, would you really like a job where you are constantly worrying about what to do next? The top job isn't really operational, that leaves far more time for thinking and as we can see a lot of thought goes into West Berkshire.

Yes, Newbury without a £175k CEO doesn't bear thinking about!

Silly me.... never thought of that

Rather than moan at the council staff for managing to get and hold well paid jobs why don't you perhaps work harder? Or maybe, become a councilor?
Seems legit to me.

There's so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin.

Bloody ****, well said that man. Or is it your dad posting?

My Dad lives in Reading so it's most certainly me.

I'm not saying that I agree with the high amounts of pay, but at the end of the day, if some matey can get a £175,000 a year then frankly, well done to him and I think it's funny how people get angry at that that - So I don't agree with the high pay but I probably couldn't do a better job, so why moan about it.

If being a councilor is so easy as often discussed by those with Beards, why not become a one yourself and earn that sort of money? That way you too can afford your own Helicopter.

"a quote of non-direct relation to my above comments" Someone who I'm using to try and make me look smarter.
"i probably didn't say this, but if I did then I take it all back" Dave from Number Sixty-Two.

If council staff worked harder, we could perhaps manage with less of them.

The Military, Nurses, Policemen and Women, Fire Fighters too name a few, work very hard. They provide a service unlike any sector in that they make a difference and yet does their pay reflect that. Mind you they did choose to do the job.

Do they work that hard though? Or are they professions that are so valuable we're afraid to challenge that? And the CE of the council is not worth that kind of money, and the nature of the public sector seems to be that people are kept in jobs and promoted all the time because its deemed that what should happen. Again not much challenging going on, because they have unlimited funds. They just keep putting up council tax.

Quite so!

what a miserable post having a go at soilders and nurses

first time counciltax has gone up in a few years init

the cost of stuff goes up with inflation so they either have to put tax up by a bit or cut stuff

What a ridiculous response, firstly I didn't have a go at anyone, I asked a question. Secondly council tax goes up every year and is scheduled to go above the government target next time round. Thirdly there are many more people who work for the council, soldiers and nurses don't. I think you illustrate my point though, dare to question whether or not the NHS or military is value for money and you're met with the same reply.

counciltax didn't go up last year don't think it went up before either

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/2012/old-news-article-19065

stop bashing nurses and soilders lets hope you never need their services

Well again, I haven't actually "bashed" anyone, and I believe council tax has gone up every year recently, I could be wrong on that though. However what I am suggesting is that it's not always a bad thing to cut stuff.

He didn't bash nurses or soldiers, he questioned why it is out of bounds to criticise them. Being a nurse or a soldier doesn't necessarily make you a good one. As for a Executive pay, I feel that is a fair target and a question more people around the world should question, especially share holders. Executive pay has soared compared to average pay.

It's not councilors getting this sum, it's a 'hired hand'.

This isn't bout being envious of their salary, it is about questioning whether the salary they receive is appropriate under the circumstances!


There are times when I think you are the protagonist!

A good Salesman or Executive is rewarded with commission or bonuses. A good Nurse or Soldier is rewarded with more work a medal or another tour of a war zone.

Soldiers and nurses get promoted, and increased pay, just like everybody else.

So are bad ones!

This is true but for the vast majority who follow, who don't have the leadership skills or maybe the education, just get on and do without question. Some of those same people are then just tossed on the heap with no pension, prospects or respect.

WBC's council tax was frozen last year - but your bill might have gone up a bit if the other elements (police, fire service, parish) went up.

However, you are totally wrong about the rise being above government targets - the government set a maximum of 2%. WBC is proposing a rise of slightly less than 2%. Councils are free to set even higher rises, but the government would then punish them by reducing grants, similarly they promise to increase grants to councils that don't raise the tax.

Pickles as since come out blustering about perfidious councils daring to put up council tax by just below the limit! If he thought they would do anything else he must be mad.

WBC's budget is falling at the same time as costs are rising and government grants are reducing - a below-inflation increase in council tax is not that bad considering.

Its difficult to have a sensible debate because the minute anyone starts suggesting simple economics we have histrionics about military and medical providers. Efficiency and economy should be in all things, as the last Government and our previous Council administrations have amply proved you don't solve problems by throwing money at them.

Yes, our local government is cutting costs; very good and well done. However, there is a way to go. We should be properly assessing everything in all services and I for one am not convinced that's the case right now. For instance, have we had a serious look at slimming down the management structures at WBC, does a Police Helicopter really and honestly give full value, etc.etc. etc.

Similarly, nationally, far better examples should be set. Why are we still using versions of the Barnett formula paying out far more to Scotland than justified or necessary? Why are we not demanding significant changes to procurement rules to eliminate costly overhead and extortionate contract prices. NHS in particular suffers from that and has becoming a cash cow for drugs companies, suffering from the same malaise as Defence procurement.

If we really are all in this together, then we would all be striving for economy and efficiency, no matter what our role in life.

NOTE = the words economy and efficiency do not mean cheap and nasty, quite the reverse.

That could be applied to all forms of employment & labour. If my woman worked harder I wouldn't have to employ a Swedish au pair.

Its very often not about 'working harder', more about better and more effective process. That is often just better management. You are right about elsewhere, the Post Office is a classic example. What other retail business would have customers queuing for so long and such inane practices and processes at the 'tills. Simple straightforward transactions take for ever and are still stuck in paper and ink, one could be forgiven for thinking this is deliberate. Look at the Application form for the technical college, a whole page of 'ethnic monitoring' questions. Some poor clerk will have to spend time entering that into the system and then some middle managers will spend hours pouring over the resultant statistics. Why? What difference has this ever made? If we don't get this right soon, no prospective au pair will want to come here, you'll have an aid worker instead.

It's a puzzle to me what people use the Post Office for. In my case, it's not much more than an annual trip to buy Christmas stamps, or recently, to pick up a passport renewal form because the online system was broken (and that lasts ten years )

It's been broken for ten years!

Yes, I could have constructed that sentence better.

I have to go next month for car tax, and to renew my driving license. I also have picked up holiday money in the past. I suspect there's a lot of "ebayers" who use it more regularly.

That latter is the case. Posting a parcel has all the problems associated with the inefficiencies of the post office. How they themselves wonder why the commercial carriers are stealing the business I don't know. Parcelforce has to be the way the postal service should look to the future. Unlike a letter, you can't send a parcel by email. Instead I have to queue through the shop behind a load of people who want to pay a gas bill or something and then have to weigh my parcel, as at St John's, wait while the person on the other side of the glass grudgingly tells me what it will cost, poke my money under the glass and then get my change thrown into a cup. Upwards of 15 minutes from start to finish.
The main post office has no parking and seems to always have a queue of twenty or thirty people so I don't use it but the alternative is almost as bad since the other post offices were closed.
Wouldn't it be an idea to have self service parcel positions something like the self checkouts in B&Q and the supermarkets. A proper Parcelforce reception point with parking outside. In fact I'm sure that there must be loads of other facilities which do not need some person with a strong right arm and a circular rubber stamp.

You are aware that Parcelforce is owned and run by the Royal Mail aren't you?

Well, that's not been my experience at St. John's post office. Staff have always been pleasant enough when I've been there.

Yes, I guess it's mostly people who need to send parcels. Car tax renewal is a couple of clicks on line, then it arrives in the post a couple of days later.

You can only renew on line if you have already renewed once before. I bought a car in January so I have to go and do it in person, which seems ridiculous to me.

They probably need a DNA swab or something to prove you are who you say you are The reason is probably that your personal information is not set up until after the first renewal - that seems the only logical explanation. Doesn't the garage you bought it from arrange the first disc? It's a while since I bought my car, so I don't remember.

Not for the money I paid

Yes of course. I was suggesting how they might recover their share of the market by a little modern technology.

Who said I was moaning? I was just stating a fact. Anyway, it is tax payers money and if you are happy then so be it.

“We are all in this together” is a phrase concocted by the Tory leader. The only way we can be in this together is if we elect a party that understands the people and work for them and not just big business. The Lib Dems would bring in strong tax regime that would target rich businesses, rich people and do more to help the poor. We’ve only got ourselves blame. Luckily for the country the Lib-Dems managed to form a coalition with the Tory’s so that we could rein in their excess and actually do just and help the poor.

Coalition Cuts so far: 20,000 Army, 5,000 Navy, 5,000 RAF, 60,000 NHS, 16,000 Police, 730,000 Public Sector, 1,700 Remploy
and 2 Bankers.

Bang-up job Lib Dems.

C'mon now, you know this is beacuse of the awful state the economy was left in by the last lot...

And why is this happening? Because of what we inherited from the last government, a labour government. No party can come in and change things for the better straight away. It is a long, long process. But we know who to blame, don't we?

Told you so!

Good. All bloated (excep maybe Remploy and the Government aren't responsible for the many tens of thousands bank staff made redundant) . A few more police sacked would be useful to keep more death off the streets.

Ah, a Lib Dem support. Carry on the good work.

Is it half day closing at the asylum today?

Is it? Is that why you've joined in with this discussion? Nobody should be discriminated against. Glad to see your input.

Was that the one with the AAA rating?