Council post axed

The council has chosen not to replace one of its three corporate directors after Carol Leslie left last year.

Instead, her role has been absorbed into the workload of the remaining two corporate directors and managing director Chris Freegard.

Ms Leslie was corporate director for lifelong learning and leisure, and her portfolio included "school improvement, education inclusion, continuing learning and leisure".

But opposition councillors are livid that such a high- profile and well-paid post was ever created if the work can be shared with others.

Councillor David Atwell said: "This shows we are overburdened with bureaucracy and it questions whether we are overstaffed."

The corporate directors were appointed in 2001 to offer strategic advice and oversee heads of service.

Ms Lesley left in June last year to join the Scottish Executive.

Councillor Peter Davies said that the costs of three years' wages of corporate directors and a personal assistant - a figure likely to top £300,000 - "could have been better spent".

He added: "How many more bureaucrats in Newport could we lose without having to replace them? I should think hundreds."

The council's cabinet this week agreed a recommendation to reduce the number of corporate directors from three to two, saving £125,000 a year.

A council spokesman said that the needs of the council changed in October 2004, when a revised corporate plan identified three key priorities.

Mr Freegard is to handle community strategy, and corporate director Graham Bingham is to take forward "improvements and service standards".

Corporate director Brian Adcock is charged with "transforming and modernising public access to services".

The spokesman said: "The establishment of the corporate directors and managing director, which followed a restructure in 2001, has had an extremely positive impact on the council.

"The recent report by the Audit Commission in Wales endorsed their success in improving progress."