Cash-strapped Greenwich Council is recruiting a new communications chief this week, with a salary of up to £120,000 – despite increasing debts at the town hall.
Council leader Anthony Okereke has been leading interviews for the new role in the wake of the fiasco surrounding its “sustainable streets” scheme for controlled parking zones, where residents were expected to search through scores of maps to find out how they would be affected.
The decision to create the new director of communications role comes a year after Okereke decided to spend £83,000 on employing political assistants for councillors at the same time as auditors warned of “significant weaknesses” in the council finances.
Last week, a BBC investigation revealed that the council’s debt had grown by £900 for every adult and child in the borough, and the town hall is embarking on a series of asset sales – including car parks and its Olympic legacy equestrian centre – to balance the books.
A job advertisement said the successful applicant “will lead and work alongside our communities, elected members and staff, empowering them to drive the change we want to see improve lives for our residents”.
It continued: “You will help us position Greenwich locally, regionally and nationally whilst developing innovative, thought-provoking campaigns, and leading first-class resident engagement. This is a fantastic opportunity to play a high-profile role in an ambitious and diverse London borough.”
Greenwich used have the most-frequently published council publication in the country – the fortnightly Greenwich Info – but this was scrapped last year to save £150,000. It still pays about £133,000 a year for advertisements in the little-seen Greenwich Weekender paper.
Since then it has struggled to get its message across. Its “sustainable streets” launch in July was widely criticised for its complex consultation material, featuring pictures of rain gardens in streets even though these were not part of the initial plans, while the council found itself unable to answer simple questions about the scheme for two days after its proposals were released.
The council also apologised after maps featured the wrong sign-off date, leading many residents to assume the council had ignored the results of a previous consultation. Part of the scheme was scrapped last month after protests.
Publicity around major roadworks in Plumstead last month was criticised last month, while this week a press release went out lauding local pupils’ exam results 10 days after GSCE grades were released.
Communications previously came under Stuart Godfrey, the council’s assistant director of corporate and central services. The new role is beefed up to a director-level position, answering directly to the council’s chief executive, Debbie Warren. A similar structure exists in neighbouring Lewisham while in Bexley, the head of communications also reports directly to its chief executive.
Matt Hartley, the council’s Conservative opposition leader, said: ““People will take note of the fact that Labour councillors always seem to be able to find money to spend when it comes to their own priorities – which invariably revolve around spending more and more taxpayers’ cash on promoting themselves.
“First the expansion of the communications team, then Labour’s controversial taxpayer-funded political assistant system, and now public money thrown at this senior PR role – all just an expensive bid to try and save this failing administration.
“Greenwich Labour will find that their political problems won’t be solved by more PR – it’s their policies that are the problem, as they are finding out week after week. Their problems will only get worse until they stop talking and start listening.”
The council said the post was a recommendation of a review of how the town hall functioned, which was carried out by senior officials and councillors from other authorities two years ago. The “peer review” said that Greenwich should “provide the council’s communications function with the necessary status and position in order to enable it to deliver against the needs and ambitions that exist around it”.
A spokesperson said: “While we know through our resident poll that residents feel well informed by the council, our communications team is also relatively small compared to other London councils. It’s standard in other authorities to have a dedicated senior communications lead, and Greenwich has been the outlier in that respect.
“We’re a growing borough of 131,000 households and we have all the challenges that come with that. There is a real need to make sure that people understand what we’re here to do, how we can help – and how our services may be changing in response to the economy, service demand or other challenges we face.
“We no longer print Greenwich Info. We’ve been innovative and creative in how we’ve responded to that launching new channels such as TikTok and WhatsApp, and rethinking how we utilise and grow our newsletter and other social media channels. We’re one of the best followed in London and our newsletter is well engaged with by readers.
“But we accept that things are moving quickly. Technology is transforming, channels are constantly shifting and the demographic of the borough is changing. We are investing in our communications to make sure that residents, businesses and visitors have a reliable and trusted source of information about the services that matter most.”
• One of the council’s senior officers received a pay-off of £89,090 after leaving the council in the spring, draft accounts reveal. Pippa Hack, the well-regarded £189,000 director of place and growth, who had a major role in shaping planning and regeneration policies over 25 years at Woolwich Town Hall, departed in March. The council said it would not comment on circumstances involving an individual member of staff and that “interim arrangements” were in place until a new director could be appointed.
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