Minehead Labour councillors are asking why the Tory chair of the Town Council’s staffing committee was paid £612 for work as a human resources consultant. Labour says Councillor Andrew Kingston-James was effectively paid to give advice to himself.
The payment of £612 to AKJ HR Ltd emerged at a meeting of Minehead Town Council on Tuesday evening. The payment was said to be for “HR consultancy.” AKJ HR is a company run by Cllr Kingston-James from his home in Hopcott Road, Minehead.
The town mayor, Cllr Jean Parbrook, refused to give more details of the £612 payment because press and public were present at the meeting. But she and other Tory councillors then voted against a motion to exclude the press and public.
Questions from Labour Group
The Minehead Town Council Labour group have now written to the Mayor. The letter from Cllr Andy Lewis, Cllr Lesley Culverhouse and Cllr Maureen Smith asks:
• How many hours work is covered by the invoice from AJK HR Ltd for £612 ?
• How many HR consultancies were considered before AKJ HR Ltd was chosen to carry out this work?
• To what extent did the work carried out by AKJ HR Ltd overlap with work that the chair of the staff committee might have reasonably been expected to do without payment?
• Presumably, part of the work carried out by AKJ HR Ltd was to give advice to the chair of the staffing committee, Councillor Kingston-James. Is it really appropriate for someone to be paid more than £600 to give advice to himself?
Cllr Lewis said:
“There may be an explanation for this, but on the face of it, it is very hard to understand. How can it be right for a council pay one of its own members £612 in a sensitive area such as human resources – especially when that same member is chair of the staffing committee?
“We hope the Conservative group on the council will reflect on whether they should be directing public money to one of their own members, for work that people in Minehead might expect him to do voluntarily, in his role as a councillor.”
Cllr Andy Lewis: 01643 704778 07974 030753