North Somerset Council s full council meeting
- Credit: North Somerset Council
A shake up of top jobs for North Somerset councillors has come under fire with £7,000 junior roles slammed as “indefensible”.
The number of executive and assistant members has not changed but Councillor John Crockford-Hawley warned one portfolio could be a “clumsy leviathan” while others were “sops to small parties”.
Others called for greater scrutiny of the positions and the power they wield but were told changing the structure would mean amending the constitution.
Cllr Crockford-Hawley told the full council meeting on April 20: “The creation of flimsy assistant executive positions for no reason other than offering sops to small parties at £7,203 a shot is, I think, quite indefensible.
North Somerset Council s full council meeting
- Credit: North Somerset Council
A shake up of top jobs for North Somerset councillors has come under fire with £7,000 junior roles slammed as “indefensible”.
The number of executive and assistant members has not changed but Councillor John Crockford-Hawley warned one portfolio could be a “clumsy leviathan” while others were “sops to small parties”.
Others called for greater scrutiny of the positions and the power they wield but were told changing the structure would mean amending the constitution.
Cllr Crockford-Hawley told the full council meeting on April 20: “The creation of flimsy assistant executive positions for no reason other than offering sops to small parties at £7,203 a shot is, I think, quite indefensible.
Cllr John Crockford-Hawley.
- Credit: North Somerset Council
North Somerset Council has had to find new ways to keep vital services running during the pandemic - with meetings held online and staff and councillors working from home.
While many of the council’s operating procedures will resume when we emerge from the pandemic, some changes could be here to stay.
John Crockford-Hawley, councillor for Weston Hillside, spoke to the Mercury about the ups and downs of homeworking and how Weston has the opportunity to reinvent itself after the pandemic.
He said: “One of the things that I have found working at home, is that you don’t get the essential camaraderie that you would get going into the office and bouncing ideas off one another.