Testy squabbles at a heated Derbyshire County Council meeting

Derbyshire County Council headquarters at County Hall in Matlock. Image from Eddie Bisknell.

By Eddie Bisknell – Local Democracy Reporting Service

Testy squabbles over council tax, budget cuts and staff pay ran rife at a heated Derbyshire County Council meeting.

At a county council scrutiny meeting on Wednesday, January 14th, councillors and officers clashed over ways to cut costs at the authority, which bears a £838 million budget.

This meeting was to assess the £22.4 million savings plans which the council aims to carry out over the next year, alongside an overall £37 million shortfall, which is currently set to grow to £66 million by 2030.

During the meeting, Cllr John Lawson, Reform UK’s cabinet member for council efficiency, criticised the previous Conservative administration for “putting council tax up by way less than the maximum”.

He said while he would support a less than a maximum increase, “how much less than the maximum has led to three years worth of council tax increases lost” and an inability to “balance the books” and “run the council effectively”.

Cllr Lawson asked Cllr Wayne Major, Conservative group deputy leader, if he would make the same decisions regarding the council tax now, to which he said: “Absolutely, that is thousands of pounds that has been kept in people’s pockets.”

Reform had campaigned on a pledge to reduce council tax, and not increase it, but are now set to approve a maximum 4.99 per cent increase.

Furthermore, Cllr Lawson said: “We knew this was going to be a difficult task, due to the mismangement of this council by the previous administration.

“It may take us two years to get our feet under the table, to stop the rot and potentially make less difficult decisions. The difficult decisions won’t stop and I knew that when I signed my nomination form.”

He also detailed how he was “angry” at the Government over the lack of funding in its local government finance review, but would not “cry over spilt milk”.

Mark Kenyon, the council’s head of finance, said the council would get an “extra” £39 million from Government for next year, but £29 million is based on a maximum council tax increase and much of the rest is rebadged grants merged into one unrestricted pot.

Meanwhile, councillors also discussed staff pay, with a previously planned pay review strategy, now deferred for two years due to the lack of funding for the suspected £20 million cost.

This leaves many staff at the authority earning less than those doing the same job at neighbouring authorities.

Reform councillors Cllr Lawson and Cllr Sarah Reaney, chairing the meeting, detailed how pay was not always the key motivating factor for people in many of the council’s occupations, including caring roles.

Officers highlighted that of the council’s £800 million budget, around £300 million is for salaries.

The council is also looking at plans to save up to £42 million by changing its operating model, with 12,000 people working for the council, 20 percent more than other similar authorities, and paying consultants up to £5 million to help them do so.

Cllr Lawson said: “We want more out of the same people, ideally. I am not saying we are not going to reduce the number of people because sometimes you can do the same with less, but it is not all about cutting.”

Cllr Major claimed salaries needed to increase to attract the best people, who would in turn help the council operate more efficiently and effectively.

Cllr Adrian Hunter, Reform, said: “Just because you pay more, they may not give you a better service.”

In October, Reform’s administration raised the potential yearly earnings for its new chief executive to more than £200,000 because the current role was less well paid than others in the sector and was an incentive to attract the best candidates.

Cllr Lawson said: “It is a very emotive subject and people may feel undervalued. Not everybody values themselves by how much money they get paid. People get into all different types of careers for different reasons.

“Much of what we do as a council is to help care for society.

“I don’t feel we actually do underpay.

“Staff morale is one of my top priorities.”

Cllr Reaney said: “Money is not the be all and end all for a lot of people in the caring services. A number of members of family are social workers and they are not in it for the money.

“My aunt is a social worker in Sheffield and her gripe is that her workload is too much, not about pay, that they don’t have enough people to do the work.”

Officers and Cllr Lawson were asked if scrapping council and cabinet member allowances had been considered.

Cllr Lawson said: “The proposals are put forward by officers. We can only consider proposals put forward to us by officers.”