In the 12 months since Labour took over at Luton Town Hall 136 brand new full time equivalent posts have been added to the Council’s payroll. Of these 18 are managers or senior managers who would be on salaries in the region of £50,000 a year or more and most of the jobs are permanent posts, only a small number are on temporary contracts.

“Goodness knows what the average salary is, but even if it was only £15,000 then the cost in salaries alone is more than £2M a year,” says Qurban.

“And then there will be National Insurance and pension costs on top of that. The total is going to be nearer £2.5M and it’s not just for one year, this cost goes on every year for as long as Labour carries on with the spending spree.”

“A budget of £100,000 has been earmarked for just one post – Head of Strategic Planning. It will be interesting to see what a Head of Strategic Planning actually does.”

“A ‘structural review’ of the Chief Executives department has added eight new jobs, a reorganisation of the staff canteen another three full time and one part time, and two part time Trades Union assistant posts have been made full time.”

“Who pays for all this? Luton Council Tax payers of course and it’s not at all clear what benefits local residents are going to see.”