Cllr Green continued by saying that “where we are, sharing is not the right thing to do”. He had always been fond of sharing a Chief Executive with the PCTs/hospitals. However the health service had its own set of issues. The PCT would collapse but we will work it all through. Wirral was the 9th largest Metropolitan Borough in the country and 3rd largest in the North West. It had a budget of ~£900 million. It had thousands of employees and was big and complicated. It was important it had its own Chief Executive. In terms of fixed term contracts this didn’t work. The management training courses he had been on said bonuses were a ropy concept, which is why they took bonuses out of the system. It was a difficult decision. However it was best that Chief Executives did what was in the public interest rather than for a bonus.

He said the scale of the Chief Exec’s salary was developed at a different time. It had led to the bizarre cycle of inflation of Chief Executive’s pay. It should be £120,000 to £135,000. He said “our staff expect the organisation to tighten its belt”. He suggested £130,000 as ten times the multiplier of the lower paid. He was going for circa £130,000 and advertising a permanent appointment of Wirral’s own Chief Executive.