Ceredigion County Council employees have received a pay increase weighted towards the lowest earners – with only a 1.4 per cent pay rise for the chief executive.

Each employee will receive a flat-rate £1,925 pay increase – which for the entire workforce will be, in percentage terms, below the current rate of inflation, 11.1 per cent.

But low-paid members of council staff like cleaners and administrators are likely to receive a rise of close to 10 per cent – which outstrips equivalent offers from many other significant public sector bodies.

Lower band NHS workers and newly qualified teachers received a pay rise of more than 9 per cent this year – with many paid by the taxpayer receiving an increase far less significant.

Every member of staff at the county council is paid a minimum annual salary of £20,258 and the council is a living wage employer.

This year, chief executive Eifion Evans and other senior, highly paid members of staff will receive much less in percentage terms than their low-waged colleagues.

Mr Evans’ nearly £15,000 rise last year prompted outrage, and saw his salary rise from from £117,866 to £132,060.

Now his salary will jump to £137,342.

Councillors are set to receive close to a five per cent pay rise this year, following a 17 per cent hike last year.

This will leave many earning around £17,600 a year from March.

A county council spokesperson said: “All council employees, excluding our teaching staff, have received the same pay award this year.

“A flat rate of £1,925 has been added to each of the pay points in the relevant pay ranges for staff on National Joint Council terms and conditions, chief officers and chief executive.

“For the chief executive salary, this represents an increase of 1.4 per cent.”

The National Joint Council is made up of trade union representatives and employers.

A CONSULTATION has been launched into the future of space in council buildings in Ceredigion, after the pandemic shifted staff’s way of working with more now working remotely.

The Cambrian News reported earlier this year how council staff will continue to work from home until at least 2024 after a new hybrid working policy was adopted.

A hybrid working strategy and interim hybrid working policy had been developed following the “abrupt enforcement” of the national lockdown for the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 saw changes to how staff worked.

More than two years on, and many staff remain away from council offices despite the complete lifting of restrictions in Wales and are set to continue to do so.

Now the council is asking for views on how best to use unused space in its buildings with fewer staff and services now office-based.

The council said that after hybrid working changes were carried on it was “becoming clearer that there will be significant opportunities to provide new public facing services or accommodate other uses at Canolfan Rheidol in Aberystwyth and Penmorfa and County Hall in Aberaeron”.

Cllr Bryan Davies, leader of the council and cabinet member for democratic services, policy, performance and people and organisation, said: “Staff feedback has shown that hybrid working has been embedded in working practices, with benefits including increased productivity, improved collaboration, greater flexibility in balancing work and home life and helping the environment with less travelling.

“With high numbers of staff choosing to work in a hybrid way there are significant opportunities to transform the space formerly occupied by desks and meeting rooms to provide a range of new uses or deliver services in a more integrated way.”

The consultation questionnaire is available on the Ceredigion County Council website at www.ceredigion.gov.uk/consultations.

The consultation closes on Tuesday, 31 January.­

HUNDREDS of planning applications remain delayed within the Ceredigion County Council planning system, a scrutiny committee has been told, despite outside consultants being brought in to deal with the backlog.

A Thriving Communities Scrutiny Committee on 7 December heard that there are now 511 planning applications and 550 enforcement cases currently with the council’s department, with a report saying this should “ideally be no more than 200”.

While issues with phosphates on rivers has caused applications to be put on hold in the past year, the council also said that staff recruitment “had proved difficult”, leaving the authority having to pay for outside help in a bid to get planning applications back on track.

The backlog - which came after a highly critical Audit Wales report which recommended a slew of changes for the council’s planning department - may take another year to clear, a council report said.

“A tender exercise for engaging consultants took place earlier in the year and following evaluation of tenders, Capita were appointed to support the service deal with planning applications and enforcement cases,” a meeting report said. “Capita have been actively working on cases since the beginning of September and are beginning to deliver recommendations so decisions can be made by the authority.

“The process for considering applications or enforcement matters and making decisions is the same regardless of whether the staff are in house or contracted.

“The arrangements are expected to make a noticeable difference in the backlog and take time to deliver decisions over the next three to four months, but is likely to take up to 12 months to reach optimum levels.”

MANY of the 800 empty properties in Ceredigion are set to be purchased by the county council to ease social housing woes.

Liberal Democrat county councillor Elizabeth Evans told the Cambrian News existing stock cannot currently meet the rapidly increasing need – with waiting lists ‘extremely long’.

But Ceredigion County Council cabinet on Tuesday, 6 December discussed an ‘exceptional opportunity’ to use £2 million of one-off funding from the Welsh Government to purchase long-term empty properties and turn them into social homes.

The meeting heard that the need for one-bedroom properties has soared since the pandemic with 78 households currently in temporary accommodation, with 40 of those single individuals. There had been more than 1,405 applications for social housing received by the council by March 2022 - up 12 per cent on the year before.

But figures from the Affordable Housing Prospectus report published in April suggest there are 1,700 people who are on the register for social housing in the county. But this is likely to have risen with the onset of the cost-of-living crisis.

A council officer also indicated there will soon be a further funding stream available to tackle long-term empty properties – of which there are now 833 in Ceredigion, including 119 in Aberystwyth.

Leader of the Independents’ Group, Cllr Gareth Lloyd, said: “A good news story, as they say. Especially as the grant will cover buying and renovating as well. Although £2m seems like a lot of money, in the current climate with the housing crisis it won’t do as much as years gone by so every penny needs to be used in the best way possible.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Hinge said: “We need these properties. We need homes for people. We need to have increased powers.”

Leader of the council Bryan Davies said: “This paper coming before us today shows we are going in the right direction.”

Cllr Evans told the Cambrian News after the meeting: “The number of empty flats and houses in Ceredigion has increased, and although they are subject to the 25 per cent levy, having so many unoccupied properties doesn’t help our housing situation.

“The questions that councillors are asked probably more than any others, are ‘do you know of any properties for rent?’ Or ‘where am I on the housing register because I/we are desperate?’

“It can be soul destroying because half a dozen residents may have asked the same question that same day, and it gives you a real feeling of helplessness as a councillor because you naturally want to help.”

The prospectus report states: “Demand for properties in Ceredigion has also increased noticeably during the Covid-19 pandemic, and this is reflected in the property prices in the county reaching their highest level on record. Average earnings in Ceredigion are below the national average, and when combined with high house prices, present a significant challenge to local people entering ... the housing market.”