Council expenditure comes under scrutiny
It has been revealed, via a Freedom of information request, that Bournemouth council employed a transport chief via an employment agency at a cost of some £206,000 between January 2008 and February 2009. However, the salary attached to the post was only £50,000 which makes a staggering £156,000 "additional payments" to bring the employee in question down from Scotland every week. The appointment also saw significant charges from the employment agency for a role which was initially deemed temporary but has since extended beyond 14 months.
The announcement of this crazy employment strategy by the Conservative led council will not go down well with taxpayers across the UK who are looking at inflation busting council tax rises. Aside from Scotland, where the government has used additional funding to keep council taxes unchanged, we are looking at significant rises across the rest of the UK. The public sector is one area of the UK economy which continues to expand even in light of the ongoing recession and has been one of Gordon Brown's favourite investment areas for some time.
While there is no doubt the vast majority of councils around the UK are more than capable of delivering the services they promise, situations such as that seen with the Bournemouth council and the apparent overpayment of taxpayer's money does not exactly cast them in a good light.
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