I don't believe it!

If you're unfortunate enought to live in Gwynedd, you'll enjoy paying your monthly council tax bill; even more, now you know that the head of education in Gwynedd is in line for a near 11% pay rise – that’s nearly £7,000 a year of public cash.  Dewi Jones is among eight senior managers in line for salary hikes of between 5.25% and 10.78% – in total costing the taxpayer an extra £41,000 a year. The Gwynedd CE argues that - in effect - they had to raise his salary as part of the final stage of the UK-wide equal pay review. But we've heard all this before. In fact, the egregious Thatcher once argued that 'we cannot go on paying ourselves more than we're earning', something which she singularly failed to follow in her own case, of course, as MPs continued to be paid, through both direct salaries and the iniquitous expenses system, which she originated, far more than their actual worth.

The even more egregious Tebbit went on to argue that people should only be paid according to market demand saying, in effect, that if a job attracted a large number of applicants, then the lowest salary commensurate with hiring the best candidate should be paid.

The UK inflation rate currently stands at about 1.6%, but that figure masks the true cost of a rural existence.  Many in North Wales, for instance, are still reliant on LPG for their heating, a product which has seen staggering price rises in the past few years, and the distances many have to travel has meant further price rises through the variances in the volatile oil markets.  None of this leaves council tax payers in Gwynedd or Conwy particularly happy when they see these sorts of ludicrous salary rises being handed out, despite the squealing protestations of those who stand to benefit handsomely.  What we need is a revolution in the way some people are paid.

Let's start with the public sector. Now, teachers are paid well. Very well, really. So, do they earn their money? In any day, the average teacher has to be at work half an hour before the day officially starts for the kids, spend their day dealing with the awkward, the truculent, the bellicose and the unreasonable, and then after their senior management meetings, deal with the kids. Frankly, anyone who has the sheer stamina to stand in front of thirty juvenile mammals and excite, control, inspire and regulate them, yet retain their composure deserves every penny.  But as they start to climb the career ladder, teachers escape the classroom and spend more time on administration.  The really resourceful ones (or the plain dreadful) contrive to escape altogether and become advisers or inspectors.

Council officers have no such stresses. They don't have to face the kids every day, have pleasant offices in which to work on their laptops, don't even have to worry about distractions such as reading local blogs and when one of their posts becomes vacant, there's a flood of applicants, usually from extremely well qualified people. Perhaps it's time to re-word some advertisements.  Starting salaries could be reduced, for a start.  Why should even senior managers automatically be paid a seriously large sum without first having to prove themselves? Previous employment references should largely be disregarded, as it's not unknown for authorities to try to rid themselves of inadequate performers through over enthusiastic references. Secondly, salaries should be tied to inherent value, that value being determined by annual referendum.  For instance, each post holder would have to publish a list of that they had actually achieved each year, and the tax payers would be able to vote on what salary that warranted. Locally, we would be able to see exactly how Bethan Jones had justified her pay rise, or what significant and cost-saving improvements Byron had wrought.

Will that ever happen?  Probably not, but the facts are that the general public and tax payers have almost no idea what the officers do and - most importantly - how they earn their often inflated salaries.   Perhaps it's time they did.