"Council takes on one new employee every week" - Gaines

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 22nd Feb 2007

Tories are spending £1.5m a year to recruit one extra person a week

West Berkshire Council's Liberal Democrats have revealed that West Berkshire Council is recruiting one new member of staff every week of the year. Deputy Leader and Finance Spokesperson Councillor Denise Gaines calculated the cost of this unsustainable rise:

"If you work on the basis that the average local authority employee earns £30,000 per year with employment costs, the bill to West Berkshire taxpayers quickly reaches over £1.5 million every year just to maintain this rate.

The latest establishment figures published by Tory-run West Berkshire Council have revealed that in the past year, the number of full time equivalent posts (FTE) has soared from 1,554 to 1,610.

Councillor Gaines continued:

"I am extremely disappointed that the Tories are clearly incapable of keeping tabs on who they are employing and therefore foisting this massive additional wage bill onto the tax paying public of West Berkshire. This will cost everybody much more in future council tax bills if they do not get to grips with this now. They talk about saving money and efficiency costs yet they add this financial commitment to the taxpayer without seeming to have the slightest realisation of the financial implications"