A new chief executive of the Isle of Wight Council has been appointed after seeing off 20 other applicants – and it is a familiar face.
At last night’s (Wednesday’s) full council meeting, Wendy Perera was appointed as the new Chief Executive.
Ms Perera has been acting as interim chief executive since April this year after John Metcalfe left the authority to join Cumbria County Council. Under Mr Metcalfe, Ms Perera acted as deputy chief executive since 2018 and was director of corporate strategy.
Ms Perera has worked in the Isle of Wight Council for much of her career, including roles in the planning departments and was part of the team who developed the Island Core Strategy, the council’s former planning framework.
Ms Perera will also be head of paid services and be on an annual salary of £138,038 — nearly £6,000 more than Mr Metcalfe’s former salary.
The appointment was approved by the majority of Isle of Wight councillors, with 1 abstention (Councillor Michael Lilley) and 1 against (Councillor Dave Adams).
A total of 21 candidates put themselves forward to fill the position, which was whittled down to 8 by the council’s appointments and employment committee earlier this month.
Isle of Wight Council leader, Councillor Lora Peacey-Wilcox, said they were extremely good and high-quality applicants, who responded to an internal advertising campaign that saved the authority nearly £18,000. Cllr Peacey-Wilcox said she hoped some of the unsuccessful candidates came back to do other jobs within the authority.
Interviews happened with councillors and various stakeholders before the preferred applicant (Ms Perera) was chosen.
Councillors were given a confidential appendix for tonight’s meeting, naming Ms Perera, but in public documents, the preferred candidate was known as ‘Candidate X’.
Ms Perera has to accept the offer from the Isle of Wight Council before she is officially appointed but questioning the restriction, Councillor Geoff Brodie said in previous rounds of recruitment the candidate has been named. He said it was very strange and questioned the reason why the candidate was not named, saying everyone knew who it was, before naming Ms Perera.
Least she won’t have to worry about finding the extra money for the council tax rise
tax rise is needed to overpay her. just greed and what will she do for that. Not much
That’s 138,000 salary but no mention of the massive contribution the council taxpayer will be making to her platinum plated defined benefit pension scheme while she is still working and long on into retirement – the massive salary paid to unaccountable and untouchable public sector bureaucrats is one thing, but when you throw in the pension it becomes unimaginable to normal people that someone could be paid so much for the pleasure of dishing it out to the little people forced to pay their wages
No but we will to.pay her
This all fits the new Council ethos. KEEP EVERYTHING SECRET. That would mean that the council probably have something else to hide, apart from the floating bridge settlement. Next will be all council meetings will be behind closed doors, pathetic.
More like the Politburo.
Puts her in the 45p per pound tax bracket as of today.
What a waste of £138,038 annual salary, to do what exactly?
Hmmm did they not first advertise this job @£170 k… ???
If these people were actors, they would be termed ‘type cast’
A more befitting description is corrupt money grabbing incompetents.
IWC moto It’s not what you know .. it’s who you know .. the integrity of this council is non existent.. these days ..
Good luck Ms Perera .. as this council are a shambles ..
Expect she will be busy ensuring that any council tax rises are kept to the minimum.
Rather than the Alliance default position, of ripping off the many. So, the non-productive, entitled spongers get ever more free money.
That’s nice and £30,000 of our council tax going into her pension fund every year.
Shes got a face like soured milk…..
£138,000 to do what. Isle of Wight Council taking the piss at its highest level.Nest of vipers creaming off the council tax money.
OMG. Nothing to change then. Same rubbish council. Any chance she may be gone before too long? And the salary, how on earth can that be justified anywhere, let alone the Isle of Wight? I wouldn’t have the nerve to even apply, let alone take the post.
I’ll do it for half that! – I don’t have any experience at this type of job but I do have lots of “real world” experience. Anyway, I’m sure that I could do just as bad a job as the clowns in County Hall!
Why not have the nerve. Maybe you should have applied 🙂 After all we would all love a £140K base plus pension. Although of course it means leading one the worst councils ever, anywhere, which is a bit of a downside!
I would have liked to have seen someone new in the post as for the last six months she has been acting as interim chief executive April and nothing refreshing or startling has happened in that time to make her stand out as making a difference..
Welcome to the 45% tax bracket
Another case of let’s look after our own.
No wonder we can’t move forward on the island!
Nepotism rules on the Isle of Wight
What ever happened to the green Island x mark’s the spot
I work for one of the biggest companies in the world where if you take the big bucks and fail you go………no doubt the same will apply here when the floating bridge is still rubbish, schools turn out unsuitable pupils and social services are failing
The ex head of legal services who chose to take no action over Floating Bridge!!
£6000 more than Mr Metcalf?, imagine what an extra £125 per week could do for a hard working family , it’s so wrong that we as Council Tax payers have to pay for so much within this Council that helps know one except the already greedy selfish rich. She will get around £70 per hour (37 HR week – and 28days leave – £10,000 paid holiday). For attending a few meetings with statistical info that front line workers are forced to do on top of their work,for her and managers to take credit . Maybe she should do some volunetery work and go and be a night time Carer,refuse collector or teaching assistant etc
Maybe she could also explain why when 100% of Islanders smelt a bad smell about the contracting of the company to install our new”floating brudge”she chose to take no legal action? Definitely will fit in sublimely with the new “secret stazi” who have installed themselves on The Island Council!.