Councillor Farnell says 'you should not treat those at the top any different to those at the bottom'

Councillor Richard Farnell

Councillor Richard Farnell has said he has always been against "big increases in senior management pay".

In an email to a constituent seen by Rochdale Online he said: "For me, it has been about one simple issue - fairness. At a time of increasing job losses, pay cuts, big reductions in services and so on: you should not treat those at the top any different to those at the bottom. As these pay increases would have been paid for by the hard-pressed Council Taxpayers of Rochdale, it was an insult to everyone in the borough who has seen their living standards dramatically reduced in recent years."

In what has been described as a "humiliating" climb down for Council Leader Colin Lambert, Labour members voted overwhelmingly to oppose huge pay rises for the Chief Executive and the Executive Team at last night's Labour Group meeting. Any pay rise they are to receive is to be restricted to the same level for all council employees, which is expected to be about 1% this year.

Councillor Farnell added: "Because Labour has a majority, this will be ratified at the full Council meeting on Wednesday which will finally decide the issue once and for all.

"We should never forget we are servants of the people."

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/84201/chief-executives-pay-rise-to-be-limited-to-1pc