Ex-Shrewsbury mayor calls on Shropshire council leaders to quit

A former mayor of Shrewsbury has called on Shropshire Council's chief executive and leader to resign over their handling of an enforced pay cut on local authority staff.

David Farmer, who is a current Shrewsbury town councillor, said he had been "very, very angry" to hear that 6,500 members of staff had been told by letter they would lose their jobs unless they agreed to a 5.4 per cent pay cut.

Letters were sent by the authority to all its employees this week stating that they will be dismissed on September 30, but will keep their jobs on a lower salary if they agree to the reduction and new terms and conditions.

Councillor Farmer said the situation had been badly handled and he called upon the chief executive Kim Ryley and leader of the council Keith Barrow to step down.

"From the moment I heard I was very, very angry. I know a lot of the staff who transferred across from the Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council to the unitary authority.

"This is the final insult," he said.

"Kim Ryley should resign now and so should Keith Barrow for sending such letters.

"Why did the elected councillors of the Shropshire unitary council agree to such terms? I feel the tail is wagging the dog within the council and it is time this was stopped.

"If this had been tried in industry, the business would have already been brought to a halt."

Councillor Barrow said: "Everyone's entitled to their opinion and I've given David Farmer a call to talk about his concerns and explain the background to the proposals which I don't think he was fully aware of."

He said everyone from the chief executive down had received one of the letters explaining the council's plan.

Unison, the union which represents about 40 per cent of the workforce at Shropshire Council, has pledged to ballot for strike action after its executive committee held a three-and-a-half hour meeting to discuss its reaction to the letters.

Alan James, Shropshire branch secretary for Unison, said the union had a "clear mandate to ballot for industrial action".

By Chris Burn