A UNION leader says his organisation wants to see all officer pay at Dorset County Council capped at £50,000 during the period of public sector cutbacks.

Gary Pattison, Dorset branch secretary for the GMB union, described the current senior management pay levels as ‘unacceptable’.

He said: “For some time we have called for a maximum, at least for the period of the present financial circumstances, of a £50,000 salary for all local public sector employees.

“It seems very hard when we have seen major job cuts and major reductions in services and we are going to see job cuts and service cuts until at least 2017/18, this sort of money is quite unacceptable. It should be an honour to be working for the community and it’s very difficult to see why they need these huge salaries when everybody else is making cutbacks.”

• NEW regulations mean that every council will have to publish all officer salaries above £50,000.

West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have merged officer structures over recent months and now operate with a shared management team.

A spokesman for the councils said the pay policy detailing all salaries over £50,000 will be published in due course.

However, information already available on dorsetforyou.com indicated that chief executive for the authorities David Clarke is paid between £110,000 and £114,999.

The four directors who form the next tier of management – director of resources Jason Vaughan, director of corporate services Adrian Stuart, director of communities Kate Hindson and director of environment David Evans – are all in a salary band of £85,000 to £89,999.

Your say

• Ian Hirving, 52, a self-employed gardener who lives in Weymouth, said: “I could go on for hours about the council wasting money. They waste so much money on pointless things. There should be at least a 50 per cent pay cut.”

• Reg Tanner, 61, who is retired and lives in Weymouth, said: “I can’t see why a high figure paid to someone running the county should be more than someone paid to run the country. It is excessive and needs reducing, especially in this day and age.”

• Georgea Shore, 15, a student who lives on Portland, said: “I think it is really bad that they can be paid so much. There’s a recession and all we hear about are all the cuts. I think it is too high and reductions need to be made.”

• John Avant, 69, a butcher who lives in Weymouth, said: “Comparing them to the rest of the country is one thing but comparing them to the wages in Dorset, especially south Dorset, is a totally different matter. I think it’s a ridiculous amount.”

• Business owner Paul Goldsack, 44, of Cheselbourne, said: “I would love to be on that sort of money. It's a totally different world. I run my own business and I have to work really hard. I think they do a good job and need to be paid accordingly.”

• Jeweller Neil Strudwick, 40, who lives in Weymouth, said that, compared to those at the borough council, staff at County Hall were earning their money. “I would say they are justifying it more than those in Weymouth ever will be.”