A leading city Conservative hasbranded the council’s chief ex-ecutive a “wimp” in a Flag-gateprotest following the death ofMargaret Thatcher.Andy Dransfield was happywhen the civic office flag waslowered to half mast on Mon-day, the day Mrs Thatcher died.But he was furious when it wasraised to full mast the follow-ing day.“Such a magnificent lady de-serves more respect than that.We should have kept the flag athalf mast for at least two days,”he said. Mr Dransfield, who hasvowed to wear a black tie forthe next month, complained to

chief executive David Hill andwas told a two-day flag lower-ing was against official proto-col. “I knew he was wrong, so Isaid I wouldn’t attend any moremeetings with him,” he told theCitizen. Hours later Mr Drans-field received a written apologyfrom Mr Hill, who had checkedwith the College of Arms anddiscovered the councillor wascorrect.Mr Dransfield said: “The chiefexecutive was being a wimp –unlike Mrs Thatcher who wastransformational when Britainwas down and out.”>MargaretThatchersavedOU, see page 7.

health chief negotiates leaving package

The £600,000NHS goodbye

by sally murrersally.murrer@jpress.co.uk01908 651309|@citizen_Sally

The man responsible for thehealth of every person in thecity has pocketed a £600,000pay-off after leaving his job, ithas been claimed.Director of Public Health Ni-cholas Hicks allegedly “ne-gotiated his own departure”from his £240,000 a year po-sition at the NHS a few weeksago.

The goodbye package, ac-cording to Citizen sources,was two and a half times hisannual salary.

Ironically, Mr Hick’s exitcaused a sigh of relief at Mil-ton Keynes Council offices afew miles away.

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Careers FairtheDonsbackintheplay-offsrunning

Tory sees red over flag

thepublichealthpostbecamethesoleresponsibiltyofthelo-cal authority from April 1.

It isunderstoodcouncil of-

ficers had baulked at paying asalaryalmost£100,000higherthanthatoftheirownchiefex-ecutive David Hill.

Theyfeareditwouldleadtoa series of equal pay demandsfrom other council directors.

“It’s not an affordableamount for a council. NHSpay scales for directors andexecutivesarejustcrazymon-ey compared to the hands-onnursingstaff,”saidonesource.

Mr Hicks was also chief ex-ecutive of the city’s PrimaryCare Trust, which, under thesamenewApril1legislation,isnow an NHS clinical commis-sioning Group.

It is not known whether hehasfoundanewjobelsewhere.

Meanwhile Milton KeynesCouncil has found a tempo-rary but thrifty solution to itsproblem of employing a newDirector of Public Health.

It is “sharing” one director,Muriel Scott, with two otherlocalauthorities,CentralBed-fordshireCouncilandBedfordBorough Council.

A spokesman for the De-partment of Health, speakingon behalf of the now defunctMiltonKeynesPCT,said:“NHSredundancy arrangementshave been agreed with NHStrade unions.

“Staffwhoaremaderedun-dant are entitled to a paymentofonemonth’ssalaryforeveryyear of reckonable service upto a maximum of 24 months’pay.

“NHS redundancy pay-ments are, therefore, calcu-lated on length of service andsalary at the time of redun-dancy.”

The spokesman was una-bletoconfirmordenythesumgiven to Mr Hicks.

PAY OFF: Director of Public HealthNicholas Hicks allegedly “negoti-ated his own departure” from his£240,000 a year position at theNHS

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