New-York-Daily-News-cneifiwr-emlyn

It remains to be seen whether the compromise reached on the pay of senior council executives between the Welsh Government and the opposition in Cardiff Bay will do anything to curb excesses. Probably not in truth, but events in Cardiff show why Rhodri Glyn Thomas was right to try to bring about change.

The chief executive of Cardiff City Council is jumping ship to join PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and now the WLGA is offering to pay for the services of a former aide to Boris Johnson to come in on a part-time, temporary basis to run the council.


Update

Thanks to Caebrwyn for reminding us that the WLGA describes PwC on its website (here) as sponsors.


The unions are aghast, with one GMB official saying that "to have a Labour council back is the worst thing to have happened to Cardiff".

The Welsh Local Government Association was very quick to criticise plans to rein in council executive pay, and its intervention in Cardiff should make more people sit up and question the role of this undemocratic body which is beginning to look more and more like a gigantic job creation scam for Labour apparatchiks.

The WLGA has 68 members representing Welsh councils, and 70% of those are Labour. The second largest group on the WLGA with 14 members are our old friends the "Independents", including Pam Palmer and Mair Stephens from Carmarthenshire (in coalition with Labour). Plaid and the Tories have just 7 seats between them.

Caerphilly, Carmarthenshire and Cardiff have more than the letter 'C' in common.