News

One third less for new Chief

Published

11 years ago

December 18, 2014

Former Chief: Bryn’s rate of £195,000 a year has been cut for the new chief

A REPORT from the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales (IRPW) has recommended a massive cut in pay for any new Chief Executive at Pembrokeshire County Council.

Former Chief Executive Bryn Parry Jones’ rate of £195,000 a year, plus extra for his duties as returning officer, will be replaced with a significantly lower but still eyewatering salary of £130K per year.

The council had argued that the replacement salary should be £145,000 a year. The board, whose recommendations must be taken into account by the local authority when setting the pay for a new Chief Executive, have said that Pembrokeshire’s size does not justify paying even the Council’s proposed salary, itself £50,000 lower than that paid to Bryn Parry-Jones.

In relation to Chief Executives, the Panel’s role is limited to taking a view and making a recommendation. Although the Local Authority/ Authorities concerned must have regard to this opinion, they are not obliged to follow it. It is true other legislation will require any such decision to be made through a vote of full council.

It is also the case the decision would be open to scrutiny, not only by the authorities’ internal scrutiny processes, but also by external regulators such as the Wales Audit Office. The authority would need to explain why they did not agree with the Panel’s recommendation, if it set a different salary than that suggested by the Remuneration Panel.

QUESTIONS RAISED ON PAY

The setting of the Chief Executive’s salary at a level a third lower than Mr Parry-Jones’ raises a number of questions about the way in which his salary and the salary of senior officers has been set. IPPG Leader Jamie Adams, and others within the governing group, have repeatedly claimed that to get the best the authority needs to offer large and attractive wage packages to senior officers. In the past, the same councillors have used IRPW recommendations as a basis for arguing that high pay was justified.

It would be, however, a remarkable situation indeed if the Head of Paid Service had a smaller remuneration package than staff notionally junior to them in the Council hierarchy. From an examination of similar roles in other authorities, The Pembrokeshire Herald has discovered that the salary of those staff at director level – for example, the same as Pembrokeshire’s own Director of Development Dr Steven Jones – are paid between 75% and 80% of a Chief Executive’s salary.

If that was followed through to its logical conclusion, setting the salary of the Chief Executive at £130,000 would produce director level salaries in the region of (at most) £104,000 a year, a pay cut of around one fifth of those directors’ current salary level.

The Pembrokeshire Herald has looked at a number of authorities in England of comparable size to Pembrokeshire and has noticed that salaries for senior officers in Wales appear to be significantly higher than those of comparators across the border. One noticeable factor in the ratio of pay between the lowest paid full-time council employees in England is that Chief Officers’ pay is often pegged to the pay of the authorities’ lowest earners.

In the case of Hertfordshire, for example, this means that the median Chief Officers’ pay of £127,000 is between seven to eight times the pay of the lowest (non-school) members of council staff.

If Pembrokeshire County Council set its pay on such a basis, this would mean that the lowest paid full-time worker at the authority when Mr Parry-Jones was its Head of Paid Service would have been approximately £26,000. Almost 3,000 of Pembrokeshire’s County Council’s 6,129 workforce are paid less than the so-called ‘living wage’ of £7.65 per hour. An hourly rate of £7.65 per hour equates to an annual wage of around £15,000 pa.

if worked on a full-time basis. Paul Miller told us: “The pay of the former Chief Executive was allowed to reach a level completely out of kilter with the lives of the ordinary people Pembrokeshire Council is elected to serve. Future Chief Officer remuneration needs to be much lower and needs to be very clearly related to the pay of rest of staff body.

I’m pleased that the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales has sought to significantly reduce the salary offered to the next Chief Executive. I will, at next weeks meeting, be calling for a much more wide ranging review of senior officer pay in Pembrokeshire.”

‘TIME TO MOVE FORWARD’

Bob Kilmister agreed: “On the basis of the evidence I have seen so far, the recommendation from the Remuneration Panel for Wales is in my view is extremely sensible. The Pembrokeshire Alliance said at its launch, ‘We want to see an end to the excessive pay of senior staff.’ It is clear the Remuneration Panel for Wales agree with this conclusion. How successive ruling administrations have allowed such excessive pay over a such a long period of time remains a mystery to me and I am sure most of the residents of Pembrokeshire.”

The issue of the high salary paid to former Chief Executive Bryn Parry-Jones was highlighted by Cllr Jacob Williams: “It would appear from the Panel’s recommendation that Bryn Parry-Jones was overpaid for his role for nigh on twenty years. With several pay rises during that time, there was plenty of scope to bring it back to a reasonable figure but as your readers know, the ruling independent party are easy with other people’s money.

Always have been, always will be.” Cllr David Simpson told The Herald: “I think that the Council should listen to the advice given from the Independent Remuneration Panel. When I was a Cabinet Member, we were told time and again that the Welsh Assembly Government ‘had it in’ for Pembrokeshire because the Independents were the ruling group! Look where this Group mentality thinking has got us.

The attitude that the Independent Group is always right is the reason that Pembrokeshire County Council is the laughing stock of Wales. The arrogance of members of the Independent Group has prevailed for far too long, when Education was put into Special Measures help and assistance offered to us by the Ministerial Board was constantly fought against.

The Chairman of the Ministerial Board, who was himself a retired Judge, could not believe the resistance he met. He once stated to me that whenever he pointed out a problem with the system the Council would retaliated with thirty excuses! It took the Council 12 months to realize that the Board was right and we either worked with them or they would take over the authority. The Panel’s knowledge is far superior to that of lay members of the Council and it’s time for us to put excuses behind us. It is time to move forward.”

Local Government

Essential bridge maintenance and repairs planned for January

Published

1 hour ago

December 18, 2025

Tom Sinclair

Works on Westfield Pill Bridge to affect A477 traffic

ESSENTIAL maintenance and repair work is set to begin on Westfield Pill Bridge, with traffic management in place on the A477 between Neyland and Pembroke Dock.

The programme of works is due to start on Monday (Jan 19) following a Principal Inspection carried out in 2022, which identified a number of necessary repairs to maintain the long-term durability and safety of the structure.

Westfield Pill Bridge is a key route linking communities in south Pembrokeshire and carries a high volume of daily traffic. While major works were last undertaken in 1998 — which required a full closure of the bridge — the upcoming refurbishment has been designed to avoid shutting the crossing entirely.

Instead, the works, scheduled to take place in early 2026, will be managed through traffic control measures to keep the bridge open throughout the project.

The planned refurbishment will include the replacement of both eastbound and westbound bridge parapets, the renewal of expansion joints, and full resurfacing of the bridge deck.

The work is expected to take no longer than three months and will involve weekend and night-time working to help minimise disruption. All construction activity will be carried out from the bridge deck and has been scheduled to avoid clashes with other planned trunk road works, as well as periods of higher traffic demand.

Two-way traffic signals will be in place for the duration of the works. These will be manually controlled during peak periods, with particular efforts made to reduce delays affecting school transport.

Motorists are advised that there may be delays to local bus services during the works, including the 349 (Haverfordwest–Pembroke Dock–Tenby) and 356 (Milford Haven–Monkton) routes.

Drivers are encouraged to allow extra time for journeys and to follow on-site signage while the works are underway.

Crime

Breakthrough in 1993 Tooze murders: 86-year-old man arrested after cold case review

Published

1 hour ago

December 18, 2025

Tom Sinclair

POLICE investigating one of Wales’ most disturbing unsolved double murders have arrested an 86-year-old man on suspicion of killing elderly couple Harry and Megan Tooze more than three decades ago.

South Wales Police confirmed the arrest on Tuesday (Dec 17), following a forensic cold case review into the 1993 killings, which shocked the rural community of Llanharry and cast a long shadow over the South Wales justice system.

Harry Tooze, aged 64, and his wife Megan, 67, were found shot dead with a shotgun at their isolated Ty Ar y Waun farmhouse on July 26, 1993. Their bodies were discovered inside a cowshed on the property, concealed beneath carpet and hay bales, having been shot in the head at close range.

The brutality of the killings and the remoteness of the scene prompted one of the most high-profile murder investigations in Wales at the time.

Conviction later quashed

In 1995, Cheryl Tooze’s then-boyfriend, Jonathan Jones, was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. The prosecution case rested heavily on a partial fingerprint found on a teacup at the farmhouse.

However, the conviction unravelled just a year later. In 1996, the Court of Appeal quashed the verdict, ruling it unsafe and highlighting serious concerns about the reliability of the fingerprint evidence. The decision was widely regarded as a significant miscarriage of justice.

Jones, who consistently maintained his innocence, was supported throughout the ordeal by Cheryl Tooze, whom he later married. The couple have since spoken publicly about the devastating impact of the case on their lives.

Despite renewed appeals and periodic reviews, no one else was charged and the murders remained unresolved for nearly 30 years.

Operation Vega and forensic advances

In 2023, marking the 30th anniversary of the killings, South Wales Police launched a full cold case review under Operation Vega. The review was led by forensic scientist Professor Angela Gallop, one of the UK’s most respected figures in forensic investigation.

Detectives re-examined preserved exhibits from the original crime scene using modern forensic and DNA techniques that were not available in the early 1990s. Police have not disclosed which items were re-analysed or what evidence led to the latest arrest.

On December 17, officers arrested an 86-year-old man on suspicion of murdering Harry and Megan Tooze. He remains in police custody while enquiries continue. No further details about the suspect have been released at this stage.

Police appeal for information

Senior Investigating Officer Detective Superintendent Mark Lewis described the arrest as a significant moment, but stressed that the investigation is ongoing.

He said: “While this arrest is clearly a significant development in the investigation, our enquiries are very much ongoing. This case has affected many people over the years and our aim is to find answers to the unanswered questions which remain about their deaths over 30 years on.

“Even with the passage of time, I would urge anyone who has information about the murders, no matter how small it may seem, to come forward and speak to police.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact South Wales Police, quoting occurrence number 2300016841.

Crime

Former police officer accused of making sexual remarks to women while on duty

Published

2 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Court Reporter

Court hears allegations of inappropriate behaviour during official police visits

A FORMER police officer has appeared in court accused of making sexually inappropriate remarks to women he encountered while on duty.

Luke Silver, aged 34, is alleged to have abused his position as a police officer by making unwanted and explicit comments to two women during the course of official police business.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Silver attended one woman’s home following an incident involving her partner and took an initial statement. However, the woman told the court that Silver later returned to her address on several further occasions, during which the conversation allegedly became personal and sexual in nature.

She said the officer asked intrusive questions about her sex life and made comments about her appearance, which she found unsettling. In messages sent to a friend at the time, the woman described his behaviour as “inappropriate”, “strange” and “creepy”.

The court was told she later said she felt uncomfortable during the visits, claiming Silver behaved in an overly relaxed manner while speaking to her and made remarks that were entirely unrelated to the police matter he had attended for.

A second woman has also made allegations that Silver asked her sexually explicit questions and made comments about her body while acting in his capacity as a police officer.

Silver, formerly of Gwent Police and now living in Lamphey, Pembrokeshire, denies three counts of improper use of police powers or privileges. The alleged offences are said to have taken place in 2021.

The trial is continuing at Cardiff Crown Court.

(Image: WNS)