Councillor allowances increase abandoned
At the Merton Council meeting on Wednesday night, the Tories withdrew plans to increase councillor allowances by up to 28%. The council did however agree to introduce a Dependent Carers' allowance and Subsistence Allowance. The meeting also agreed a resolution to bring the issue back next year; Labour councillors who argued that the scheme should be extended till 2010 and after the next council election opposed this. At long last this debate has reached a conclusion after many hours spent on the issue.
posted by Martin Whelton at 1:11 am
4 Comments:
So how much are the allowances that have been introduced.. and are they for all Councillors??
At what stage were the plans for the 28% raise cancelled?
Do you know what the votes were on this in the end? Was it narrow?
Surely the greedy Tories backed-out after getting such a bad press from the local Guardian, particularly when they exposed the Tory council's money-grab alongwith Stephen Hammond's sprint to get paid like the GPs!
Allowances differ between authorities. Where I am the basic allowance is £8K not including expense claims. If you get on committees you can really bump your salary up though, to the tune of about £2K per committee. Plus you get more if you take on a portfolio or a position within your party group. A pretty penny can be earned.
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