The old chestnut is coming up again, as it usually does around this time of year, questions are being asked about how many people work at Hartlepool Council? or more accurately how many are employed by the Council! I was recently clearing out some old files and came across this letter which I sent to Hartlepool Mail in 2006......nothing changes:
Sent to Hartlepool Mail, 26th February 2006
Dear Sirs,
In reply to recent correspondence in your letters page I must point out that under the Freedom of Information Act individuals can get answers from Hartlepool Council. However, with official figures there is always a “but”
When I asked how many people were employed by Hartlepool Council I received figures adjusted to “full time equivalents (FTE)” so my question was not actually answered. Apparently there were 3,506 FTE employees at Hartlepool Council in 2001 and now there are 3,334, or 172 fewer FTE employees now than in 2001….BUT… in 2004 approximately 400 staff transferred from the Council to Housing Hartlepool so that has disguised the true growth in numbers.
More significant is total cost of employees at Hartlepool Council. In 2001, Hartlepool Council paid out £79,383,000, £22,000 average per employee. Total costs have gone up every year; even in 2004 when the number of staff dropped, the total cost still went up by over £6,000,000. In 2005 the total costs were £101,425,000, taking the average to over £30,000 per employee over a 20% increase in four years!
The other information I obtained shows that in 2001 no-one at Hartlepool Council was paid more than £99,000 and ten employees received more than £50,000, giving a cost for the senior managers of £650,000., By 2005 two employees each received over £110,000 and twenty others received over £50,000. A total of £1,430,000 being paid at the top bands. An increase of over 200% in the past four years. So when the Council hold their hand out for more money next year just remember these figures. Nice work if you can get it!
Stephen Allison
St.Hilda Ward Councilor
Hartlepool Unitary Authority
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Or how about this one, from March 2006....
Dear Sirs,
Council announces a panel to monitor new posts. Election time is approaching and some Councilors need to appear to be doing something! Three years ago, I was on a panel, setup with the same objective, after inflation busting Council Tax rises and increases in the number of employees at Hartlepool Council. I left the panel after a couple of meetings when it became obvious it would not be allowed to actually achieve anything.
The panel “advised the Mayor” and any job they advised to leave unfilled would immediately be classed, by the Chief Executive, as vital for Operational reasons, (usually health and safety), the Mayor would back the Chief Executive, ignore the panel and give permission to proceed with recruitment to fill the post.
Setting up panels, referring to scrutiny, monitoring, all give the appearance of activity without actually achieving anything. The Mayor announcing a FREEZE on new recruitment! Now that would be news.
It will never happen under the current Council. The Mayor actually boasts about how much money he is spending and Labour Party Policy treats local government as a huge job creation scheme. This is very popular amongst people who get jobs from it. The policy is less popular amongst those facing massive council tax increases to pay for it. So until Council employees outnumber everyone else, at which point they will all be told they must Vote Labour to keep their jobs, then we will get meaningless panels set up to allow Councillors to hide behind
Stephen Allison
St.Hilda Ward Councilor
Hartlepool Unitary Authority
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