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news
Jersey cycling (credit - Visit Jersey)Jersey cycling officer’s £69,000 salary described as “eye watering” by former politician
The Government of Jersey is hiring a new Cycling Officer – and the successful candidate will earn what one former politician has described as an “eye watering” salary.
The role is currently being advertised as Jersey’s government aims to “drive forward cycling improvements in the island”.
According to the job description, the successful candidate will support the government’s Sustainable Travel policy to “progress our ‘cycling roadmap’ by overcoming barriers to cycling through better information and the creation of cycle routes that are coherent, legible, and comfortable.”
The job also requires the technical skills to fully develop bike infrastructure concepts alongside engineering colleagues.
> Near Miss of the Day 713: Driver asked not to close pass... then does it again
However, the salary for the role – which ranges between £63,000 and £69,000 – has been criticised by former Jersey politician Ben Shenton, who has described it as “eye watering”.
Shenton, who served as a senator in Jersey’s parliament between 2005 and 2011 and was the island’s Minister for Health and Social Services, told ITV that while the Cycling Officer role was important, it should be priced locally.
“I'm more interested as a tax payer in getting value for money for the taxes I pay,” the 62-year-old said.
“So make sure the role is actually needed. There were two other similar roles to do with the transport strategy and try and hire locally and get the best people but get them at the right price.
“I think if you're a nurse or a vet or a pharmacy person you're going to look at that and just think my goodness what is going on here.”
Responding to Shenton’s comments, the government’s press office told road.cc: “For clarity, the job is not about teaching people to cycle, but about supporting the Government of Jersey Sustainable Transport Policy as a senior engineer, furthering schemes for better cycling infrastructure and contributing to the behavioural change required to reach net-zero emissions.”
The government clarified that the post is designed for a professionally qualified Transport Planner, Highway or Civil Engineer at a Chartered Level, and that the successful candidate will “specifically lead on the development and delivery of infrastructure projects being identified through the Active Travel Plan.”
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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16 comments
'I'm more interested as a tax payer in getting value for money for the taxes I pay,” the 62-year-old said.'
I was cycling through central London yesterday and the place was festooned with flags and royal ensignia and roads are closed for weeks or diverted . . . . I wonder what he thinks about the cost of all of that?
Fixed the quote for you.
(edit) Meaning, I'm surprised at anyone on Jersey mentioned the t-word
Worth noting as a Senator he was paid £46k for a part time role.
The main question should be if the person they recruit is fit for the job and will give value for money to the tax payers. Because a lot of MPs and civil servants that attend and sit in the House Of Commons and Parliament DONT.
Are TERRIBLE at their jobs and only in it to line their own pockets, enrich themselves and their friends. While they tell us to use less electricity, eat less, travel less, drive less while they relax in their mansions with lights on 24/7 and butlers to cook them 3 meals a day and jet off in private jets halfway across the world for their 'important meetings'
Civil Servants don't sit in Parliament, that's what MPs and Peers of the Realm do. Civil Servants are not 'terrible at their jobs'. Try getting an aeroplane off of the ground or medical supplies to hospitals without us. Try getting a Doctors appointment without Civil Servants in the background, try getting your pension paid, your child benefit application processed without us, try calling the emergency services without a Civil Servant at the end of the 'phone. Who do you think arranges for all those armaments to find their way from a depot in the UK to Ukraine? If you think you have no need of the Civil Service you're kidding yourself. Remember it was us that made the furlough scheme work, the vaccination programme a success, what did you do for the Nation? And that's without a real terms pay rise in a decade.
...fair point!
Right, I'm having words with my old man, he was just about as high up in the civil service as one can be (one level below head of the whole thing, basically) and he kept the mansion, the butler and the private jets pretty well hidden from us, all we saw was a hugely competent and intelligent man working incredibly hard for a quarter of what he was offered to work in the private sector.
You appear to be conflating politicians and civil servants; politicians make the mess, civil servants clear it up. As jaymack has eloquently pointed out, without civil servants civilisation would literally grind to a halt.
I'm wondering how we are going to manage without 90 odd thousand less of them?
Yes Minister.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4tXPx5Bk5w
Almost as much as a politician! And we all know many of them are paid vast sums - to sell their services (their position) to the gambling lobby, fossil fuel industry, money laundering organisations, repressive regimes etc.
In the case of property / investment guru and former trader Ben Shenton I couldn't say if any of those would apply though.
I also raised my eyebrows at a cycling position garnering that much money. But how would that compare with some officer with other transport responsibilities e.g. for roads / rail? My being surprised is sad - I've internalised the prevailing "there's transport, then there's children and parks and cycling" mindset.
Given the qualifications required, and the difficulty of the job, combining technical expertise and diplomatic skills, that level of pay seems about right to me. At least they're taking the role seriously and paying a decent amount, unlike most places where the cycling officer is seen as rather unimportant.
The world must be spinning on a different axis!
I actually agree with you on this one!
Agreed, especially when you take into account the cost of living in Jersey.
Not to mention the cost of jerseys - assuming the cycling officer is a cyclist themselves (though I wouldn't put it past them to appoint some buffoon whose never ridden a bike).
When I lived in South Gloucestershire, they advertised for a cycling officer. No mention of having a bike, but you had to have not only a driving licence but also a car.