Further to the blog of 25th April 2011, as below, I received the following comment:
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Biggleswade Town Council - staffing costs":
I don't think percentage of total expenditure is a particularly useful measure (I assume this is purely revenue?) for staff costs. I do think you need a wider range of comparatives before drawing a firm conclusion.
One alternative comparative measure might be staff costs related to population so that the town's size can be compared rather than the amount it spends. So in the examples above staff costs per capita of population are:
Ampthill ~ £33.78
Dunstable ~ £11.97
Houghton Regis ~ £21.32
Biggleswade ~ £23.36
As can be seen, Ampthill's staff costs for this indicator (although lowest as % of total spend) are considerably more...
Posted by Anonymous to Biggleswade OnLine at 26 April 2011 00:26
I don't think percentage of total expenditure is a particularly useful measure (I assume this is purely revenue?) for staff costs. I do think you need a wider range of comparatives before drawing a firm conclusion.
One alternative comparative measure might be staff costs related to population so that the town's size can be compared rather than the amount it spends. So in the examples above staff costs per capita of population are:
Ampthill ~ £33.78
Dunstable ~ £11.97
Houghton Regis ~ £21.32
Biggleswade ~ £23.36
As can be seen, Ampthill's staff costs for this indicator (although lowest as % of total spend) are considerably more...
Posted by Anonymous to Biggleswade OnLine at 26 April 2011 00:26
Well lets look at it another way. Take the total spend, minus staffing costs and see how much is actually spent per person.
Ampthill £79.79
Houghton Regis £46.29
Dunstable £35.57
Biggleswade £21.82
The expression comes to mind, "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" which is a phrase describing the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments, and the tendency of people to disparage statistics that do not support their positions. It is also sometimes colloquially used to doubt statistics used to prove an opponent's point.
I will be asking Biggleswade Town Council for staffing numbers and a breakdown in salary ranges.
__________________________________________________________
____________________________________
_______________________
Does anyone know why the Biggleswade Town Council staffing costs are considerably higher than a selection of other Central Bedfordshire Councils?
Ampthill - population 7040 - total expenditure £799,510 - staff costs £237,822
staff costs as a % of total expenditure 29.7%
Dunstable - population 35120 - total expenditure £1,669,610 - staff costs £420,334
staff costs as a % of total expenditure 25.2%
Houghton Regis - population 16670 - total expenditure £1,127,140 - staff costs £355,455
staff costs as a % of total expenditure 31.5%
Biggleswade - population 16410 - total expenditure £741,427 - staff costs £383,313
staff costs as a % of total expenditure 51.7%
No comments:
Post a Comment