Are we getting value for money? Councillor’s Corner.

Today leader of the opposition party Councillor Ray Morgan writes for the Havering Daily.

Havering’s Council Administration has come under fire from opposition councillors over the amount of money Chair’s of Committee’s are earning given the limited numbers of hours involved.

Using the figures & details of the last financial year, Cllr Ray Morgan, Leader of the (Resident’s Association) Opposition, said:

‘As an example, the Governance Committee sat for a total of 3 hours and 25 minutes and the chairman received £7,650 for simply chairing that meeting for that length of time. As you can see that is an equivalent hourly rate of over 2 grand an hour.‘

Apart from shortness of many of the meetings there were, for various reasons, 22 cancelled ones and some only met two or four times over the whole year!

The Opposition claims that some Administration councillors are given paid positions as a ‘reward’ for their loyalty, rather than being the right person for the role, and there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency or output from several Committees.

Cllr Morgan, added:

‘At a time when Havering Council has massively increased car parking charges and imposed big rises in council tax because apparently it is so strapped for cash, it is insulting to residents that many Administration Councillors are earning thousands per hour to chair meetings‘.