Labour push Councillor's allowances up again

Shortly City Councillors will get a rise in their allowances of 1%, backdated to May 09 in line with a decision forced through a full council meeting by the ruling Labour group on 27th November 2008.

The decision was to increase councillor's allowances by the average local government pay award in both 2009/10 and 2010/11 which neatly avoided having to discuss the subject again before the next council elections.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the City Council, Cllr. Peter Coley said today: " Ordinarily an increase in line with average pay settlements would not seem too unreasonable but this comes after large, inflation busting increases when Labour took over in 2007 and at a time where many have lost jobs or are worried about job security. My group voted against the increases when they were discussed and we do not feel it would be appropriate to further increase councillors allowances in the current economic climate. Consequently the Liberal Democrat Group have decided we will not take the additional allowances which Labour voted for and we hope that other groups take a similar view."