No need for austerity! Labour council chief’s pay soars to £168,000 as his authority faces spending cuts of 19%

Daily Mail
"A Labour-run council jacked up the salary of its chief executive by 7 per cent yesterday in defiance of calls for pay cuts.Paul Walker’s inflation-busting rise takes his pay to £168,000.Last night, the decision was condemned by trade unions as ‘morally indefensible’ and the Tories as unjustifiable.The increase, in Hartlepool, comes as other Labour-led councils in the North are saying Government cuts mean they have no choice but to reduce services for children, the elderly, leisure and libraries, because they have no bureaucratic waste to slash."