Council’s £600k payout to staff

There were three compulsory lay-offs - Craigavon’s acting chief executive Robert Colvin; his counterpart in Banbridge Pat Comisky; and Armagh City and District chief executive John Briggs.

They are reported to have been granted between £150,000 and £170,000 each in a package dictated from Stormont.

There was one voluntary redundancy - David McKee, an officer at Armagh, with a reported package over the £100,000 mark. His deal is a template that will be used for a raft of voluntary redundancies coming along the line. It is anticipated that between 200-300 lay-offs will be requested, with an expression of intent about to be sent out from Craigavon Civic Centre, the main administrative offices.

The current redundancies are immediate, especially among the acting and actual chief executives, whose jobs finished at midnight on Tuesday, March 31 when Armagh City and District, Banbridge District and Craigavon Borough Council all officially wound up to become ABC. Roger Wilson is the new council chief.

The agreements were announced in an ‘in committee’ briefing. And while DUP members asked for clarification on a few technicalities, it was all agreed in the end.

There are around 1,100 staff collectively from the former three councils, and the three former Civic Centres will be retained. The Palace at Armagh will be the prestige centre, from where the Lord Mayor (initially Darryn Causby) will operate.

The business meetings will be conducted at Craigavon (the only building big enough to accommodate the 41 members) and Banbridge will be the planning centre. The former Mayors’ Parlours in Banbridge and Craigavon will remain, mainly for social purposes and greeting visitors.

A source in the council said, “The final sum is based on time the officers served in their current posts. “