A CONTROVERSIAL move to pay district council chiefs more money has bombed after a cross-party revolt by councillors.

Wychavon District Council’s ruling executive committee had recommended the managing director Jack Hegarty, his deputy Vic Allison and three other middle managers re-ceive pay increases worth £40,000 in total.

The proposal provoked a storm of criticism from councillors, parish councils and residents while behind the scenes ordinary council staff – who have had their pay frozen – were outraged.

At a meeting of full council on Tuesday night, the pay increase bid was defeated after the ruling Conservative group’s own councillors de-serted their leaders to vote against the proposal with the Liberal Democrats and the sole Labour councillor.

Coun Paul Middlebrough, council leader, started the debate saying “taking the right decision is often the hardest decision” and pointed out the top performing council had already reduced management costs by £220,000. He said the deputy managing director’s workload had al-most doubled since he joined Wychavon, while his pay had remained static.

Heading off criticisms of pay to other staff, he said their rate of pay had already been set through the national agreement with the Local Government Association.

“If doing more for less involves paying senior managers more, then so be it,” he said.

But his appeals fell largely on deaf ears, with Margaret Rowley, the Liberal Democrat group leader, saying: “This is the wrong time and we are in a different ball game.

“I have been approached by people about this in the street and at a parish council meeting – they were appalled.”

Coun Peter Pinfield, the Labour member, said: “Good people should be rewarded – no question. But we are elected by the people of Wychavon and we will be castigated if this passes – I don’t think we can justify it.”

Coun Frances Smith, a former council employee and now a Tory group member, said the last such decision by the council had “crucified” the ordinary council staff at the time.

She said the move had in fact only “embarrassed” Mr Hegarty, when he had not sought a pay rise.

Meanwhile, leading Tory veteran councillor John Smith said: “How many rate- payers have phoned up this council saying how great an idea this is?

“I can tell you now, a former chairman of this council told me this was a ludicrous idea”.

The vote was lost 13 votes for, 21 against with eight abstentions.

...and over at Malvern

A district council is cutting a third of its senior managers to save £200,000.

Malvern Hills District Council is getting rid of Nigel Snape, its head of legal and governance, and Lee Robson, the head of economic development.

The first redundancy will fall at the end of the year, and the second post will be vacated by June next year. Negotiations as to whom will leave first are due to start. The council has seen a 27 per cent (£750,000) cut in the grant funding it gets from Government to 2013.

Councillors agreed on Tuesday to “slim down” the senior management leaving four heads of service, reporting directly to the chief executive Chris Bocock.

The outgoing managers’ responsibilities will be shared out among the remaining department heads, with Mr Bocock taking over the economic development brief.

The council can do away with the two posts because it is now sharing services, including revenue and benefits and ICT with other councils, including Worcester City Council, Wychavon District Council and Worcestershire County Council. The total number of staff employed directly by the district council has fallen by two-fifths in the past four years saving £8 million. Councillor Paul Swinburn, HR and performance head, said he was unable to rule out further redundancies in the financial year, but there were no plans for further cuts. He also said there would be no pay rises for the remaining senior managers.

Coun Phil Grove, council leader, said: “Next year, we shall be undertaking a full strategic review of all aspects of the council’s operations to chart out how best we can meet the needs of our residents in the years to come.”