News

The payments will now be discussed at the council’s overview and scrutiny management committee meeting tomorrow evening
advertisement

Probe into councillors' £6,000 payments

August 22, 2012

Controversial non-executive director payments will be scrutinised by a council committee tomorrow.

Liberal Democrat councillors called in the decision made by Wokingham Borough Council’s executive in July to pay councillors acting as non-executive directors on three council-owned companies more than £6,000 per year.

The payments will now be discussed at the council’s overview and scrutiny management committee meeting tomorrow evening.

Councillors Prue Bray, Beth Rowland, Lesley Hayward, Kay Gilder and Lindsay Ferris called in the decision.

The controversy involves non-executive director posts at social care provider Optalis, town centre regeneration company Wokingham Enterprises Ltd and affordable housing provider Wokingham Housing Ltd.

The Lib Dems state the executive ruling contravened the council’s constitution, saying ‘there is no justification for changing the previously announced decision that member directors would not be remunerated’ and highlighted a perceived lack of ‘due consultation’.

The councillors believe ‘openness has not been observed’ and that ‘clarity of aims and desired outcomes has not been observed’.

Cllr David Lee, leader of the council, has said he has no apologies to make over the way the decision was taken and that it would be madness to ask any shareholder representative non-executive directors to put their personal position at risk for no pay.

n Please turn to page 12 for a letter from Cllr Lee on the subject.

| Submit Comments | View Comments (5)

« Previous Story | Next Story »

Most recent user comments 5 of 5

Very good too, but it was the council who set up the companies, members of the council who sit on these boards, and the council who decided that they would be paid to do so. How is the council going to review this policy without bias?

If the job could be done within the council, with councillors making decisions within their current, already compensated, remit, then why have these companies been split off and why do we need to pay more for that service than we already were, especially when that money goes straight back to the councillors' pockets? Its absolutely insane! And all done without proper consultation, review or publicity.

Saying something smells, and there is a clear conflict of interests, are understatments. It could be closer to fraud. The LibDems are absolutely right to call this in, and if they fail to change the decision then they should raise this to the local government standards committee (if such a thing exists) to determine whether or not there is anthing criminal going on under the covers. Abuse of public funds, especially for personal gain, is a serious offence.

mavdo, Wokingham
22/08/2012 at 13:57

"Cllr David Lee, leader of the council, has said he has no apologies to make over the way the decision was taken and that it would be madness to ask any shareholder representative non-executive directors to put their personal position at risk for no pay."

I believe that there are members of the council staff who are directors - how much are we paying them?

Phil Challis, woodley
22/08/2012 at 12:34

As always the Conservatives seem to want to have it both ways. First they say that these opaque companies are not the council (even though they are 100% owned by the council) so they don’t have to disclose the same information that the council would have to and are not subject Freedom of Information rules. Then the Council’s Conservative Executive instructs the companies to pay councillor directors £6095.

It simple really - if the Conservative Controlled Executive is indeed making the decisions (and not the company) then everything should be transparent. For example payments to councillors should go through the independent remuneration committee.

Phil Challis, woodley
22/08/2012 at 12:24

Like a blue refuse bag splitting and depositing the contents of a cat's litter tray on the road..... something here smells.

Woky Local
22/08/2012 at 12:02

Why do I get the feeling that there is somthing very dodgy about this? Isn't there a conflict of interest when you have a Councillor making decisions that affect a company that they are also a director of? It also looks like an elicit way of siphoning off public funds into councillors pockets?