VOX POP ON WDC COUNCIL TAX RISE

David Scott, GMB trade union

There’s no money for low paid workers who have been offered 3% but there is for council leaders. Austerity for some but not all.This is an absolutely abhorrent pay rise of 13%

glasgowtimes.co.uk

Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken is in line for a 13 per cent pay rise – and it will be funded by the taxpayer.

Midlothian councillors yesterday agreed a 56% pay increase for senior colleagues in just 45 seconds – moments before confirming council tax rises for residents.

Irene Cameron

Place is a joke scrimp everywhere else & give themselves a pay rise !! & cut back on workers’ council tax a joke also what are we actually paying for ??

Richard Stewart

Argyll and Bute councillors voted for a “shocking” 9.9 per cent increase in council tax, and a “shameful” 22 per cent rise in pay, in a “tough” budget for the 2025/26 financial year.

Liz Gallacher

I keep saying if we ALL stopped paying council tax and put it away they’d soon get the message .

Tracey Mcdougall Mcmillan

Every year is the same now ! We have to fight for a halfway decent rise taking up til Xmas or Feb the following year before we get it all the while its collecting interest waiting on our back pay!

Richard Stewart

The scale of these pay rises is disgusting, meanwhile council tax goes up.

In WDC we have what looks like nepotism with council Labour leader Martin Rooney’s son William having been elected in Old Kilpatrick recently, writes Bill Heaney. Joint income then from the council is around £100,000 a year. At least one of them has a second job. Not bad for what used to be a wee part time job especially when you have no significant influence on what the council tax rate will be. Or at least that – and a great deal more misinformation – is what they would like the public to believe. Btw, how many councillors have family members working for the Council or benefiting from council contracts? Just asking.

That’s the way the money goes …

Meanwhile, an early retirement deal for Glasgow council’s former chief executive was not “lawfully approved” by the local authority, according to a new report.

Lawyers also claimed the departure of Annemarie O’Donnell was “not supported” by a restructuring exercise central to her exit.

But the report found there was “no evidence” any of the senior staff who benefited from the exit packages acted improperly.

A Glasgow-based newspaper revealed last year that the SNP-run council called in lawyers over concerns about early retirement deals for O’Donnell and her senior colleagues.

O’Donnell received a £357,845 “in year” contribution to her pension while Elaine Galletly, former Director of Legal and Administration, received a £223,065 pension contribution and £59,971 for “compensation for loss of office”. SNP council leader Susan Aitken was not involved in the payments and was said to be angry.

Brodies, a legal firm, was hired to write a report and Douglas Ross KC was tasked with writing a legal opinion.