Cheshire East Council says it needs to make cuts to local services to balance its books, so why has it then chosen to spend nearly £2.4 million on three interim positions?
The council needs to cut its bill on temporary staff and consultant fees not cut local services.
I asked the council how much money it had spent on temporary senior staff in the last few years and was shocked with the figures my Freedom of Information uncovered. Between February 2022 and March 2025, an interim Director was paid £1.177 million, a Head of Service £903,206 and an Executive Director £296,304.
These need to be permanent staff roles, this would save the taxpayer significant amounts of money. Everyone knows hiring agency or interim staff costs more.
The council sets out what savings it is making in the coming years in its Medium Term Financial Strategy for 2024-2028. There are many examples in this document where this money could have saved or gone towards services.
To pick out just a few, a £615,000 cut from libraries, whereby some libraries have closed, and others reduced their opening hours. Or a £144,000 “saving” from waste and recycling centres following a consultation which saw Bollington, Middlewich and Poynton sites permanently closed following their temporary closures.
Parking “savings” amounted to a huge £1.325 million, of which £600,000 was from annual increases in parking charges. This follows the council extending the chargeable hours to 10pm in all their council car parks, and also introducing charges for a Sunday, which previously had been free.
We must remember these are all choices. Cheshire East is choosing to waste additional money on staffing bills. It is choosing to cut services like libraries and waste recycling centres. It is choosing to make things more difficult for our local businesses and our high streets (when it should be supporting them) by extending the hours people have to pay to park.
I’ve long expressed concerns over the financial mismanagement at this council, and my FOI has reinforced my belief that Cheshire East has its priorities completely wrong and has no financial nous.