Kerr-ching! Money's no object when you've got it

I’M suffering from Wandering Mind Syndrome, I suspect. This week my mind has been wandering in all directions.

Firstly, the University Technical College, that wondrous redevelopment of our police station that will fill in the gaps in Salisbury’s educational ‘offer’ without having Any Adverse Effect on our existing schools - honest.

On Tuesday Wiltshire Council’s rulers committed £2million to this monument to political vanity – sorry, that should have read “much-needed educational facility” and “sub-regional centre of excellence”.

I love the phrase “custody suite”. It sounds like somewhere you might spend a kinky honeymoon. A night in the cells is what it means. And they still haven’t worked out where it will be once the police are relocated, although we’re assured it will be “modern and sustainable”. Thank goodness for that.

Incidentally, wasn’t it delightful to read that Wiltshire’s former £183,000-a-year chief exec Andrew Kerr was confirmed this week as Cornwall Council’s top man on a salary somewhere between £158,000 and £176,000?

I actually felt quite sorry for him when he was ousted from Planet Trowbridge two years ago because a) he came across as a pleasant chap even though he had to ‘reorganise’ so many underlings out of their jobs and b) he so clearly didn’t have a clue that his political overlords had been plotting his own demise.

A £144,000 redundancy package must have eased the blow, but it was still gratifying to see that shortly afterwards he found a new role as £140,000 chief operating officer at Cardiff Council, where he was reportedly “looking forward to driving improvement” until the lure of the laid-back surf dude paradise proved irresistible.

Surely that’s as far as he can go. Any further west and he’ll fall into the Atlantic.

I don’t blame him, by the way. Or anyone who tries to do better for themselves.

It’s just interesting how teachers and firemen who protest about the decimation of their pension plans are portrayed as not caring about the inconvenience they cause while, among the upper  echelons, the gravy train hurtles on.