Fancy earning £79 per hour working for “Your Surrey County Council?”
It may help pay your bill for taking your rubbish to the Civic Tips in future?
Agency staff at Surrey County Council are earning up to £79 per hour, the equivalent of £148,000 a year.
This quite staggering figure was revealed by County Councillor Denise Le Gal, cabinet member for business services, and a Farnham Borough Councillor, in response to a question at the county council’s full meeting recently.
And… her teenage son, who is standing in the Farnham by-election may soon be joining her at “Your Waverley.” Well that little duo is certainly something worth waiting for… isn’t it? 
In a written reply to a question from Redhill councillor Jonathan Essex about agency staff pay rates Councillor Le Gal said: “The council employs a range of specialist agency staff who provide cover for vacancies (short and longer term) or specialist skills for short duration work. The directorates employing the highest paid locums are Business Services and Children’s, Schools and Families.
“The highest paid locums in Business Services are generally engaged as specialists on developmental projects with hourly rates of pay (including agency mark up) in the range £46 to £79.
“The remaining highest paid locums are in Children’s, Schools and Families and are generally engaged in specialist assessment roles working directly with children with hourly rates of pay (including agency mark up) in the range £59 to £76.”
When Councillor Essex dared ask for confirmation that this meant some agency staff were earning £148,000 a year, Councillor Le Gal said: “Mr Essex I’m glad to see that you are able to do the math and that is for one particular position based on the higher hourly rate that was quoted.”
Councillor Essex also asked how much the council would save if the agency workers were employed as council staff.
Don’t worry Councillor Essex, the county council doesn’t need to save any money – it is just about to invest multi -millions in a property development in Farnham…Oh! perhaps Councillor Le Gal didn’t actually tell you about that?
