Council wages

I WRITE in response to letters regarding council employees’ wages. I agree with the need for pay restraint at the top of our public services. In the past five years, the cost of senior management at Torfaen council has reduced by more than 25%. 
To show leadership, Labour Group councillors have not accepted a pay rise since we were elected in 2012. 
Unfortunately, the figures presented by the ‘Tax Payers Alliance’ were highly misleading. 
Only one Torfaen council employee has a salary over £100,000. The TPA included one-off redundancy payments and pension costs in their figures, therefore including people whose actual salary was a fraction of £100,000. All senior salary information is published on our website as part of our annual accounts. 
Our proposed budget savings are a response to a projected shortfall of £26million over the next three years, as a result of savage government cuts and financial pressures – something hitting councils across Britain. 
The prime minister’s astonishing letter to Oxfordshire County Council shows he doesn’t understand the impact of his own Government’s cuts, but unfortunately we have no choice but to make tough decisions because of them. 
That might not make us popular, but our job is to somehow protect local services and the residents who depend on them. 
We will work hard to be more efficient every year to minimise cuts, but claims that the financial reality facing us can be avoided are simply disingenuous.