£174,000 paid to screw city residents of 24.6 million

PLEASE READ BELOW AND TELL ME IF YOU STILL WOULD VOTE LABOUR,THIS IS WHAT YOU VOTED FOR THESE COUNCILLORS DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT STOKE RESIDENTS. THEY PAY OUTSIDE PEOPLE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS TO RECOMMEND CLOSURE OF SERVICES YOU VOTED FOR THIS MARXIST COUNCIL TO REPRESENT YOU ARE YOU WILLING TO STAND BY FOR THE NEXT 2 YEARS AND SEE EVEN MORE OF YOUR EARNINGS PAID TO OVERPRICED NOBODIES

Monday, September 24, 2012 Profile image for The Sentinel The Sentinel Follow A CITY council director who oversaw unprecedented £14.6 million cuts to children's services was paid £174,000 to walk away from her job. Sharon Menghini, pictured below, quit the council and pocketed the golden handshake after Stoke-on-Trent City Council revealed plans to merge her role in charge of children's services. ​PAY-OUT Sharon Menghini. PAY-OFF: Sharon Menghini. The pay-out, combined with £151,515 in salary and expenses and £22,953 in pension contributions, took Dr Menghini's total pay packet for 2011/12 to £348,218. It comes as the authority oversees cuts of £24 million across the city, following £35.6 million savings last year, with children's services facing a £3.5 million overspend. Dr Menghini's payout made her the city's most expensive officer last year – even topping the £223,203 in salary, expenses and pension payments claimed by chief executive John van de Laarschot. She oversaw cuts of £9.5 million in 2011/12 and £5.1 million for the current financial year, including botched plans to shut seven children's centres which instead saw all 16 centres hit with major cutbacks. Dr Menghini is now running her own consultancy firm, 'Sharon Menghini Education & Children Services Consultancy', and lists "implementing budget cuts" among her expertise. Independent councillor Dave Conway was responsible for examining the cutbacks in his role as chairman of the children's services scrutiny committee. He said: "Along with the protesters, we fought tooth and nail to reduce the cuts to children's centres. "We were told every penny had to be saved. "Now we find she has walked away with this astronomical amount. "It is the sort of money that most people can only dream of." The council axed Dr Menghini's post after she quit, and pooled the management of children's services and adult social care in April. Tony Oakman is now in charge of a merged 'People' directorate, although Eleanor Brazil has been appointed as an interim director of children's services. And Mr van de Laarschot has also now hired assistant chief executive Charlie Stewart on £132,000-a-year. Cuts to children's centres this year include in-house teachers losing their jobs and £1 charges introduced for previously free sessions like baby massage groups. Mother-of-two Emma Boote, aged 35, of Norton, a member of the Save Our Children's Centres group, said: "We know Sharon would have fought for children's services whereas we don't know where we stand with the new director. "But this is a huge amount of money to be given just for walking away and surely it could have been spent on stopping the city becoming more and more deprived." Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Golden goodbyes on this scale completely undermine the savings councils are having to find. "When the council has doled out such a vast sum to Dr Menghini merely for quitting her job, taxpayers have every right to feel utterly cheated." The council said the changes to the People directorate will be completed within a year. Mr Stewart, said: "The post of director of children and young people's services has been deleted and we expect the transitional arrangements to be completed in the next 12 months, which will also save a director-level salary."