WESTMINSTER CONSERVATIVES SPEND £2.5 MILLION ON 10 ‘TEMPORARY’ STAFF

WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP

PRESS NOTICE

4^th August 2011

WESTMINSTER CONSERVATIVES SPEND £2.5 MILLION ON 10 ‘TEMPORARY’ STAFF

Westminster Council has spent almost £2.5 million on 10 ‘temporary’ staff, nine of whom who have worked for the Council for over two years, according to Council figures revealed by Labour Councillors. Of the 10 ‘temporary’ staff, only two, an Environmental Health Officer and a Deputy Services Manager in the Family Recovery Team, could be said to be working in front-line services.

In addition, the Council employs 34 temporary staff earning over £300 a day.

Earlier this week, Labour Councillors revealed that Westminster Council is spending £186,000 a year on a 6-person 'Campaigns Team', while at the same time they say that they do not have enough money to afford £4,100 a year to give 50 partially sighted people free access to the RNIB Talking Book. The 50 partially sighted residents had their free access to the RNIB Talking Book axed as part of the Council’s cuts.

And in June, Westminster Council agreed to spend £960,000 on five ‘Transformation and Change Management’ consultants from PriceWaterhouseCoopers for the next 12 months, with the option to extend the contract for a further six months bringing the total cost to Westminster Council Tax payers to £1,440,000. Labour Councillors attacked this decision at a time when the Council is making £60 million of cuts, half of which are to front line services, including the axing of services to 3,000 elderly residents with moderate care needs, the closure of the St James’s Library in Victoria and the cutting of over 70 weekend street sweepers in the north of Westminster.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said;

“How can Westminster Conservatives justify spending £2.5 million on 10 so-called ‘temporary’ staff at a cost of up to £745 a day when they are axing front line services to the most vulnerable residents? Westminster Conservatives are guilty of wasting the Council Tax payments of hard-working Westminster residents. This is an absolute disgrace and a national scandal. Why don’t Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps condemn this blatant misuse of public money?”

ENDS