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They did. Extending to Broomhill and Ranmoor was looked at. Locals were against it, so it didn’t go any further.

They direct policy and strategy ( which is important), including developing new policies and strategies, decide how service budgets will be spent and the makeup and size of the teams under them. They are responsible for corporate plans and the performance and budget monitoring that goes with them. Senior managers review and approve all spending decisions of any size. They also review and sign off any reports which are going to governance / decision making bodies. They often sit on boards which oversee the governance of projects. Directors are often the senior responsible officer on projects. They often sit on partnership bodies where they work with other partners ( such as the other South Yorkshire local authorities and the MCA in the transport field of work). That’s where decisions are made on what transport schemes should be progressed (or not) on a regional basis. They often also sit on sub national (eg Transport for the North) and national bodies like the Core Cities group. Heads of service, directors and Chief Execs are extremely busy people.

Depends what it says in the contract specification. I haven’t read it. I’d say overall condition has deteriorated recently, but most other places I go, the roads are as bad or worse.

And obviously had reasonable contractual grounds for doing so. Do Sheffield?

Tell that to your elected representatives in central government. They set it up that way.

They are in charge of a budget of £1.5 billion per annum, and are responsible for thousands of staff. That’s a big responsibility and deserves good remuneration. Bonuses have been basically phased out in local government and they only ever applied to lower end jobs. That caused all sorts of equal pay issues for councils, so I very much doubt they will be revisiting that system of pay. How do you think performance / bonus targets can be fairly applied in an environment where the politicians at local or national levels can change the goalposts at any time? Its an utterly impractical suggestion in my view. Stopping paying your council tax? Good luck in your conversations with the bailiffs, they’re lovely people.

Of course he does. He’s a politician and he wants to be re-elected. He’ll be judged on what is delivered (or not) under his leadership.

I do not think that’s the case. I have never seen him specifically claim to be responsible for every aspect of any project or initiative. Oh, I’d suspect they have considered it. There will be a reason why they park up there. To find that out, all you need to do is ask them why.

Seriously now, do you actually think that the mayor is involved in every nuance of every project and initiative the MCA deliver? The MCA will have staff who are responsible for the specification and installation of any infrastructure that they will own or operate. These people work with “the industry” every day of their lives. There will be reasons why they chose to site the charging infrastructure at the interchange. Why not send them an foi and find out the real reason, rather than knocking the figureheads.

Send them an foi request and I’m sure they will explain it to you.

The mayor and the police and crime commissioner aren’t senior managers. They are political figureheads and are both elected. ( some places are looking to combine the two posts) Those posts came as part of the package that South Yorkshire had to put in place to be a mayoral combined authority. That brings with it many millions of extra funding for the region that they would not get if they didn’t have an MCA. This is how central government wants it to be. There have always been chief execs in councils, it’s nothing new. The extra funding that MCA’s get, massively outweighs any salaries paid to these people. Senior managers in local government already get only a fraction of what their equivalents in the private sector get. I think they deserve every penny and should get more.

Which bit of this do you not understand. None of the senior managers at SCC are councillors. Most senior posts are politically restricted and can’t be filled by councillors.

So basically you mean that the council makes decisions you disagree with for reasons you don’t understand. Public authorities will always make decisions some don’t agree with. That’s why the decision makers ( councillors) are accountable at the ballot box. Do you think that managers/owner/decision makers in the private sector always get it right and can please everyone? Think again.

A member is a councillor. They get an absolute pittance of an “allowance”. Public authorities should pay the going rate for the job. Why should public servants be grossly underpaid. Do you think there’s massive job satisfaction in it nowadays?

If you think any of this public school network stuff applies to councils I believe you are very mistaken. Theres nothing stopping anyone being a success and there aren’t the qualification / membership of professional institutions requirements that prevailed when I started in local government ( at least in my line of work. I didn’t get a degree and I started work as an apprentice and got to be what was described by some (not me) as a “senior” manager. The very senior people at councils, like chief execs and executive directors are appointed by the councillors, so it’s hardly likely that any of them are ex public school around here. FYI, in my line of work and in other professions, graduates come in at “professional” level and in some places get accelerated progression up a “career grade” as they gain experience and get professionally qualified. They don’t become managers unless they apply for and get a vacant post via competitive interview. Not everywhere has graduate training schemes anymore as local government isn’t that attractive to them, as they can get much better pay and experience in the private sector.