Two jobs BANES councillor and his Chinese junket

Soon to be ex-Tory MP, David Wilshire, has a house and political history in and around Midsomer Norton, Somerset.

Mr Wilshire, widely (and quite rightly) pilloried for paying £100,000 of taxpayers’ money into his own business, established a tradition for local country Conservatives to take local country residents for a ride.

As merely Councillor Wilshire, this right wing politician cut his political teeth claiming expenses as leader of Wansdyke District Council (1981-87) before being elected as the MP for Spelthorne, Surrey. Moustachioed school teacher, Maitland Horler, the darling of the Constituency Conservative Association, eventually succeeded him as Wansdyke Council Leader.

Unfortunately, Cllr Horler was the darling of too many people and he resigned in 1992 soon after his mobile phone usage from a local authority conference in Brighton contained a number of calls to south coast massage parlours.

Within a couple of years Tory Wansdyke Council gave birth to Tory Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Council and the election of a new conservative great white hope – another moustachioed darling, Cllr Malcolm Hanney.

Cllr Hanney, a former investment banker who was wealthy enough to retire in 1993 at the age of forty – boasting that he was earning “substantially more” than the £82,000 a year he was earning when he was thirty.

Since then Malcolm’s household has scraped by on his wife’s salary (he is company secretary of her law firm, Magna Law Limited), his pension investments and whatever money he can scrape out of the public purse as a Very Important Person.

So important is Super Hanney that he boasts of having over 80% of the vote in his Chew Valley ward in Bristol’s stockbroker belt. The fact that only a Liberal Democrat non-entity stood against him in 2007 and more than 60% of his electorate did not support him seems to have eluded him.

But why worry about what local electors think when you’re currently pocketing a cool £1,300 per week as Chairman of B&NES Primary Care Trust and B&NES Council’s executive member for resources?

Ordinary unitary authority councillors are remunerated on the basis that what they do amounts to part-time work – currently around £7,000 per annum. Not bad work, if you can get it.

But as local councils have a tradition of being populated by either retired people or those who can afford putting in the extra hours without fear of damaging their career prospects.

Working people generally struggle with the conflicting interests of holding down a full time job while serving their community as an elected member.

So the idea of totally voluntary, unpaid councillors is widely seen as being a step backwards – effectively turning over local government to the pleasures of the landed gentry again.

Of course Super Hanney is not an ordinary councillor. He’s a member of B&NES inner sanctum, the cabinet, with added responsibilities and duties. As deputy leader of B&NES and executive member for resources, he is entitled to an annual salary of around £35,000. This extra income reflects the fact that cabinet roles are effectively full time jobs.

Executive councillors in full time employment outside of councils usually have to put their jobs on hold or resign to fulfil the time commitments required to carry out the role effectively.

Other members of Bath’s great and good brigade fete Cllr Hanney in this role, he’s chalked up a dozen free meals in the past year. No less than a man of his obvious calibre deserves, I say.

But while you and I might be happy with a Chinese takeaway as a special treat every now and then, this wasn’t good enough for Super Malcolm who went on a Council junket to China for his Dim Sum last year.

Four nights (17-21 October 2008) with fellow councillor and photographer Loraine Morgan-Brinkhurst, council lackey Jeremy Smalley and a couple of other local dignitaries, with various lunches and dinners as declared in B&NES register of members’ interests.

So far so good for the hard working Hanney. But hang on a minute – he’s also chairman of B&NES PCT and this “full time” post attracts a £30,000 salary as well.

A quick flick around the relevant public sector websites – B&NES Council and B&NES NHS will provide confirmation of the whopping £1,300 per week Two Jobs Hanney trousers.

Hold on a minute – exactly how can Two Jobs do these two jobs?

As the old joke goes, he must work for Cunard. In his own words he admits this: “In total in the two posts I work over 60 hours per week. I do what I do not because of the money but because I feel I have an obligation to put something back having had a successful business career.”

I work fucunard too but I don’t break the European working time directive. If I want to do extra part time work I have to tell my employer what I’m up to as they may have concerns about how this could affect my working performance.

So has Two Jobs Hanney asked his Council employers – the electorate – if they’re happy with him doing both jobs?

Has he asked the Health Secretary the same question? After all we can’t have the poor chap being over-stretched and stressed out.

No matter, like many councils and PCTs in England, these public services in B&NES are beginning to integrate. Super Malcolm is a big fan of the merger – perhaps he sees the opportunity of another super salary on the horizon.