Congleton: The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for our county was given a pay rise due to a 'mistake'.

As reported in January, Deputy PCC David McNeilage had his pay increased from £38,250 to £51,000.

The £12,750 increase was given within half-a-year of McNeilage taking up his role as Cheshire's second highest-ranking police official.

Now, Cheshire PCC John Dwyer Cheshire's has defended the 33 per cent pay rise he gave his deputy telling a councillor he made a mistake when initially calculating the salary for the role.

Cllr Jonathan Parry (Lab) referred to the increase at Monday's meeting of Middlewich Town Council.

"The reason I'm asking is we're going to be paying more in Middlewich and we want to know how much of that is being seen on the ground that we will get the benefit of," said Cllr Parry.

As reported previously by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the deputy commissioner's salary jumped from £38,250 when he was appointed in June of last year, to £51,000 in November.

Police commissioner John Dwyer told the meeting: "I manage now a budget of about £250m. My office costs about £1m and my office is your office because we're there representing the public of Cheshire and we're holding the chief constable to account."

With regard to his deputy's salary, Mr Dwyer said: "I made a mistake."

He said he calculated in May, when he took up office, that the job he wanted the deputy to do would be equivalent to half of his own salary.

"When I actually get him in post and realise that the job I'm asking him to do is a lot more complicated because of what I've inherited from my predecessor, it needed a lot more work doing on it, I took a view then of actually this pay is not right and not the right level," said the commissioner.

"So I'm not giving him a pay rise, what I did was to readjust the pay level which I think he should have had right from the beginning.

"It is a genuine mistake on my part and indeed the police and crime panel said in November that had I declared this to them in May they would have accepted it anyway."

John Dwyer was re-elected as Cheshire's Police and Crime Commissioner in Conservative

Dwyer was the first person to hold the post and was elected in November 2012.

The former police officer was defeated by the Labour Party candidate David Keane at the 2016 election.

He then stood against and beat Keane at the 2021 election, which made Dwyer the first PCC in the UK to serve on non-consecutive terms.

He chose McNeilage as his No. 2 in June. Before this, McNeilage was John Dwyer's Campaign Manager.

The pair are both based in Winsford.

McNeilage's allowance from the start of his position to January was £576. Dwyer's expenses figure was £2792.13, which included trips to and from Congleton.

Congleton: You can find more about McNeilage and Dwyer here.

Crimes and information regarding cases in Congleton can be reported to Cheshire Police via this website.

See Also: Congleton: Town Council rejects police desk closure ahead of deadline.

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