It’s been recommended that Dave Burbage, the man at the top of the Isle of Wight council, could take a 20% pay cut to bring his salary to under £100,000, papers of the upcoming Employment committee have revealed.
The way it was framed in the paperwork (below) is, “It is proposed that in light of the economic situation and as part of the Council’s budget strategy that the staffing costs associated with the Managing Director and Head of Paid Service post be reduced.”
No accepted as yet
As far as if he is happy to accept this, it isn’t known, as our phone call to County Hall has just revealed. “Nothing has been stated”, was their response to being asked if Dave Burbage had agreed.
40% cheaper than Steve Beynon
The council’s previous Chief Exec, Steve Beynon, used to be paid just under – and we mean just, at £3 under – £150k. On top of this, Mr Beynon had £32,999 paid into his pension every year bring the cost of his reimbursement to £184,116 in 2010-11. No pension payments are made to to Dave Burbage.
Including Dave Burbage’s National Insurance contributions, bringing the total costs of employing him to £111,121, employing him would be over 40% cheaper than Steve Beynon.
Past controversy, now resolved
The original way that Dave Burbage was paid, attracted some controversy after it was revealed by this publication that a Limited company under his control, received the payments, rather than as a personal salary. When the Island Independents came into power, this was changed to him being paid through PAYE.
The Employment committee is also recommended to extend Dave Burbage’s role until 1 April 2015.
The recommendation
Image: howardlake under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license
