LIB Dem county councillors have criticised Surrey’s ruling Tory administration for recruiting a new ‘business manager’ post, at a salary of more than £43,000, when at the same time planning hundreds of staff redundancies and millions of pounds of cuts to front line services.

The advert, which has appeared on the Guardian website, seeks to recruit a “skilled networker” to County Hall whose work “will often be politically sensitive”. The salary offered is £43,638 for a working week of 36 hours, with the promise of a “generous local government salary related pension”.

Fiona White, deputy leader of the Lib Dems on Surrey County Council, (SCC) said: “SCC is telling its own staff that they are planning significant redundancies, and telling residents to prepare for millions of pounds of cuts and a reduction in services.

“It simply cannot be right therefore that at the same time the county council is recruiting new staff to back office positions while children’s centres, Special Educational Needs services and local libraries are all under threat.

“Appointments like this do nothing to reassure me that the Conservative-administration at County Hall understands the wishes and needs of the residents they purport to serve”.

A SCC spokesman said: “We’ve restructured some of our back office roles so this replaces an existing position and includes more responsibilities. It’s important we have the right people in place to effectively deliver the transformation work required to improve outcomes and tackle the very significant demands and financial pressures we face.”