G'day mates11

If the chief executive of BP was going to move on believe you me they’d find someone to replace hin sharpish. The top dog at the council is nothing remarkable by any stretch of the imagination and could easily have been replaced from within. I cannot accept that he’s so special that this ‘chosen one’ is not so replacable. Maybe his peers are so comfortable at their own councils that they cannot be enticed to move into his position! The army can replace fallen officers in the field during conflict almost on the spot, companies can replace people once they resign (after all that’s what the resignation procedure is there for) but these guys are so special they can’t. But wait a moment maybe we need to examine this another way of an agreed scheme devised by unaacountable schemers to now get paid whilst sunning yourself.
As a closing comment, when someone decides that they prefer to live elsewhere then why would we want to hire or keep them on. We have enough people in Britain that have decided to stay and make a change, take a stand and improve UK society rather than swan off elsewhere. If you wish to leave then do so Sir but just leave the pass, keys and UK tax payers money on the desk…. now get out!

The fact is Artiford that we have this gameplan for more than a decade and nothing has been maintained let along improved. However throughout we have had increasing taxes levied against us when we are having to cut back in our lives in order to feed the quite unnecessary monster called the public service. Please review my comments and explain why the example from BP could not be implemented within the public sector.
As for we don’t have any idea of course only your self appointed judgement is the absolute gospel. “Ours” is an opinion and the local authorities are pretending to be corporates whereas I could comfortably state that they wouldn’t have a clue how to lead true multi national.
I feel your comments are more reflective of a brusied ego rather than a focused response. The whole issue of congestion, environment, etc is about as relevant as sardine fart in the North Atlantic.

Well said Hardeep and Idispair.
Thought: if a fat wadge of paternity leave was on offer, I wonder if our soon-to-be-aussie would also have grabbed it with both hands and not worried too much about who’d replace him on a day to day basis – or would he have offered to do the work between feeds? And, of course, the Council would have found a replacement – too un PC to say there’s no-one good enough.
And the point about the environment? Cobblers! He’ll use more in the flight across there than weeks travelling to work! And if working from home’s so easy (I do), why doesn’t he anyway (ah, the smart office and status – forgot)
Run the chance past some other finance managers. Oh, of course, they did and there was no-one up to the mark so the redoubtable Mat T is really the best in show.
hey ho….

Hardeep:
Of course you could find a brilliant replacement for him if you offered BP wages.
And it would be a funny site watching all you Daily Mail readers explode with anger if they did.
your knee jerk ‘this would n’t happen in the private sector’ response is not only flawed generally – councils are not private companies and despite increasing similarities, never will be – but also in this particular instance you are ignorant if you don’t think many, many, private companies use consultants and staff, based abroad.
As I said you cant have it both ways, you can’t expect the best people to go to councils if your not prepared to pay them.
Fortunately councils have managed to attract some decent people – despite a massive wage disparity between them and the public sector – because of things like the decent pension and flexable working arrangements.
Plus there are a few people out there who actually enjoy making peoples lives better and don’t need financial reward for it.
As for anyone going on about Taylor ‘sunning himself’ it doesnt merit a response. Are you saying that if he had chosen to move to the antartic you would have no problem with it?

You’ll find in your undue haste that I am not to be tarred with the same brush and convientently placed into the category of the pseudo satanic Daily Mail reader.
I am simply after value for money and that’s it, not to embark on some kind of witch hunt as you seem to portray. Offering an alternative opinion doesn’t merit your wrath of how ‘knee jerk’ my reaction is, quite to the contrary and persons such as myself are voicing concerns over a period of time which in this case seems to be a decade or two. With that I encompass the last conservative administration too so you can’t imply that I am sort of a party favourite.
With our centralised system it’s precisely that point I am attempting to raise that local money and taxes don’t feedback into the local region/area. Therefore I don’t need to live in fenland in order to fear what may be taking place because in many respects we are all paying for it. Labour’s plugging the poverty gap, regional prosperity, etc facilitates the extraction of monies from one area and delivers it to another. Surely that demonstrates how we are embedded within a large mushy-mashed up sort of socio-economic patchwork. The TPA seem to quite sensibly advocate local money for local regaions, the local people, local business and of course local public sector needs. I genuinely wish the best for my fellow citizens but have a different take on how it can be best achieved.
The parallels to private companies is silly because local authorities are not cash generators they spend money they are given via taxation. Therefore the very model of operation is different. The executives at private comapnies have to make decisions that are going help push the company to the next successful milestone. Local authority staff simply spend tax payers money with their salaries paid through other people’s taxation. The whole system is thus unable to support itself and would liken itself to an ever tightening spiral. It’s not an issue of being mean or having some politicial axe to grind but an overiding pursuit of affordability because when the money runs dry it’s me the average joe on the street that the government will tap for money. To voice my concerns is no crime (well not yet anyway) and feel that such debate can only be worthwhile in the end.
With council taxes so high it’s quite right that we examine and if need be re-examine the balance of payment to the performance of delivered services. There are numerous public services that are vital and I would like to promote these further but the money has to come from somewhere and as I see it at present there’s just too much fat, which obviously needs to be addressed.

This argument about Artiford Council is geting rather silly. If the man is doing his old job, because the Council has not replaced him of course he is entitled to his salary.The Council should hsve had a successor ready in time. In Shell noone could be promoted until they had trained their successor, There was always a substitute ready.
The excuse about the Chief Executives job being high risk is laughable. How many have been sacked for incompetence in the last fifty years?
Council employees are the servants of the public. They should operate as economically as they can. The best of them do, the worst are there for a comfortable ride at the public’s expense.
And let’s forget the old legend that they all earn less than in private enterprise. Michael Heseltine altered that years ago. In fact the boot is on the other foot,with considerably more job security and very m uch better pensions they are now m uch better off.