Welsh Conservatives yesterday expressed concerns about excessive bonus payments to failing local authority departments after figures revealed the Welsh capital’s city council has already spent close to £2million on bonuses in 2010/11.
Most of the payments were to two of the council’s worst performing departments – Highways and Waste Management Services.
Jonathan Morgan AM, Conservative Shadow Minister for Local Government, who uncovered the figures in a Freedom of Information enquiry, warned that local authorities across Wales need to guard against excessive spending in the face of squeezed funding settlements by the Labour-Plaid Assembly Government.
Jonathan Morgan AM said, “It is concerning to see the capital’s city council spending vast sums of money rewarding two of its worst performing departments with bumper payouts.
“Residents of Cardiff will be concerned having faced a chaotic winter with inadequate salt and grit supplies, insufficient measures to keep Cardiff moving in heavy snow and roads riddled with potholes, that Highways staff have received such generous bonuses.
“Recent figures show that Cardiff has the worst recycling rate of all 22 local authorities in Wales so it is all the more surprising that Council bosses should seek to reward failure.
“Especially at times when public money is scarce, all public bodies should be tightening their belts and ensuring that taxpayers’ money is spent efficiently to deliver the highest quality services at the lowest cost.
“Using public money to reward failure in times of a spending squeeze is simply not acceptable.”
