Council boss gives back returning officer fee

[mike325112]

BBC said:

Sheffield City Council's boss has given up his £20,000 returning officer fee after long queues stopped people voting at the general election.

Appologoes if I am being naive here but £20k for acting as a returning officer ! Never realised it was that much! Quite how much do we pay officials?

Full story here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire...

[was8v]

Does this not cover costs as well?

see also:
http://ggpweb.uttlesford.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Bina...

[Tony*T3]

WTF? £20k for doing what exactly?


Where can I sign up to do that?

[AndrewW-G]

Yes we pay that much, in a GE the majority of the people counting votes are employees of the local authority the chief exec of which is normally the returning officer.

There is far more to the role than simply standing up at the end of the count and announcing the results, not only is the officer legally responsible, they are also responsible for organising the entire process, something that no doubt we all agree isn’t 5 minutes work, hence the payment, which given the level of pay for their everyday job, is probably about a month’s wages.

It is also tradition that the returning officer holds a reception for the volunteer staff afterwards, something that drains quite a few pennies from their pocket

[LeeME3]

Hey our CX (not a MILLION miles from Yorkshire) has just had a very pleasant holiday in Nepal with his daughter to hand over 4 laptops...taxpayer stumped up for that as well! Now if he was raising a load of £££ whilst there or even covering it as a 'twinning' visit that would be something, but it seems it was a week in Nepal to hand over 4 laptops!!! And his basic pay ain't too shabby either (about £40K more than a Cabinet minister gets...).