£100k-a-year job to help cut costs at Sandwell Council
Cash-strapped Sandwell Council bosses are advertising for a new £100,000-a-year director – whose job it is to help cut costs at the authority.
The post has been criticised as 'not making much sense' at a time when the council has to deal with crippling Government cuts.
However, the authority's deputy leader Councillor Steve Eling said it should be greeted as 'good news for the people of Sandwell'. He said the ideal candidate would have 'entrepreneurial skills to save public services so they can be made self-financing'.
The position is for a director of commercial and business transformation, with a salary range of £87,200 to £101,687.
Among the role's priorities are 'refreshing and rebranding our multi-million pound saving and innovation programme' and 'continuing to revitalise our IT service'.
UKIP Councillor Philip Garrett blasted the move, saying: "They're chopping officers left, right and centre, yet they can find room for a highly paid director. It's not on at all I'm afraid.
"It doesn't make much sense to me and I don't think many people in Princes End would agree with it either. They could put that £100,000 into children's services, that's an area that's crying out for help. It would be much better spent putting the money into a department that needs it more than any other." Advertising for the position was an attempt to safeguard the future of Sandwell for residents, according to Councillor Eling.
The post is newly advertised and fills a director role which has been vacant since December. Councillor Eling said: "This should be good news for the people of Sandwell. It's us doing our bit to safeguard the services that they want – that's what this is about."
He added: "This person will have a skill set that we haven't already got and will bring a refreshed approach. We've got to go that extra mile if we are to survive the cuts between now and 2020. This isn't a super-duper salary, it's consistent with what people at that level within the organisation are being paid."
In the 10 months prior to February around 300 workers were made redundant at the authority at a cost of £5.5 million.
Officials have projected staffing numbers at the authority will be reduced by 111 during the 2015/16 financial year – but said not all of those would necessarily be redundancies.
