Local Novelist Queries Link4Life Bosses' Pay

Letter to Rochdale Observer from Trevor Hoyle:

PRIOR to the opening of the £11 million leisure centre, the council's finance chief, Farooq Ahmed, tells us that the high salaries for Link4Life executives are deserved if the organisations they manage are performing (Rochdale Observer June 30).

But if the 70% increase over 4 years for managing director Craig McAteer is 'deserved', where does this leave the rest of the Link4Life staff whose salaries have been frozen, had their hours and wages reduced, or worse still, been made redundant?  One rule for the executives, it seems, who are 'deserving', another for the foot soldiers who actually run these organisations.  No pay rises for them (if they are lucky enough to still have jobs).

And I still can't get my head round the fact that while Link4Life is supposedly a charitable, non-profit making trust, funded largely by Rochdale rate-payers, why the board of Trustees and councillors alike see nothing wrong in permitting these inflated salaries.  Where is their sense of responsibility?  Have they been asleep?  Is it they just don't care, or are they powerless?  I'd really like to know, if someone can be bothered to tell me.

Yes of course I welcome the new leisure centre.  I'd also welcome a fraction of the £34 million Link4Life is spending on sport and leisure capital projects going towards new arts and heritage facilities.  There was a brilliant suggestion recently in the (Rochdale) Observer from Mrs. Enid Jones (Letters June 23) that instead of knocking down, the old Art Deco swimming baths could be used as rehearsal rooms for local groups and a theatre/ performance space.

As well as being near the centre of town, with parking, and providing a resource we badly need, it would preserve an iconic building which holds fond memories for three generations of Rochdalians.

What about it, Link4Life management, board of Trustees and councillors?  Any takers?

Trevor Hoyle,
Newhey.