The Isle of Anglesey County Council has released details of payments for David Bowles’s services in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Council recognises that there is a public interest in knowing how much Mr Bowles’s appointment as Interim Managing Director, on the direction of the Assembly’s Local Government Minister, is costing the public purse.
As with any other individual contract, there has been a need to balance the public interest against a possible breach of commercial confidentiality. In this case Mr Bowles himself and SOLACE Enterprises Ltd. have co-operated fully in agreeing that the information should to be published.
The Council have also released a previously confidential report in which the cost was compared to the budget provision at the time of Mr Bowles’s appointment.
In summary, the details are –
- To fulfil statutory requirements, Mr Bowles is employed as Head of Paid Service for a nominal sum of £1.
- In addition a contract for service with SOLACE Enterprises Ltd. provides his services on a daily basis. Between September 2009 and March 2010 the total cost to the Council of this contract was £124.7k.
- For a full year, the cost of this contract was estimated at £275k.
- At the time of his appointment, the cost was within budget for the 2009-10 financial year, but added £91k in 2010-11.
The Council does hold information about the sums paid to Mr David Bowles by SOLACE Enterprises Ltd.
Council Leader, Councillor Clive McGregor, said, “I’m glad that we’ve been able to publish these details. We can now concentrate on supporting Mr Bowles’s continued good work, which is integral to the Council’s recovery.”
