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Councillors reject 126% pay rise
South Ribble councillors have sensationally scrapped a 126 per cent pay rise – because of the credit crunch facing their residents.
The proposals on the table at Wednesday's full council meeting were to increase councillor's basic allowance from 1,500 to 3,400.
Despite the authority's members being amongst the lowest paid in the country, the majority voted against the recommendations for an increase made by an independent renumeration panel.
Council leader Coun Margaret Smith said: "There was a very strong feeling that our residents are out there struggling and we should respect that and show solidarity by not taking the amount proposed.
"Many councillors had strong feelings about it and spoke well, it is a very sensitive situation.
"In some cases for some councillors it is quite a sacrifice, not all of them will be able to shrug it off because in some instances it is costing them money to be a councillor.
"We pay tax on the basic allowance of 1,500 and national insurance, plus three or four meetings a week and there's no way it is enough to compensate the time and effort put in."
An amendment to the proposals was put forward by Coun Phil Smith to phase in the increase, with an additional 500 from October, a further 500 in March, and the rest to come after that.
However that was also voted down and Coun Mrs Smith asked: "The problem is where do we go from here? We haven't worked out our next move yet, whether we get another panel's recommendations or stick with what we've got.
"It is six years since the issue was even debated and as time rolls on it could be another six years if we are not careful."
Coun Stephen Robinson spoke strongly against the proposals at the meeting and said: "Because of the economic situation we are in, an awful lot of people are in serious difficulties. I'm beginning to see it every day as a chartered accountant dealing with smaller businesses, we are firefighting to help them survive.
"It would be totally inappropriate to take such an increase when people are struggling to pay their bills."
Coun Mike France made a presentation in favour of the proposals and said: "I'm disappointed it didn't go ahead. Nobody argued with the proposals, it was just the timing that people had a problem with and didn't feel able to justify it.
"But there's never a good time. It shouldn't cost money to be a councillor, and it does. In reality it would only cost taxpayers 2 per household, per year.
"I personally don't think we should vote on it, it's not our decision. I think I'm worth a decent renumeration package and do a good job."
The decision to reject the 1,900 increase in basic allowance means the borough councillors remain behind all their neighbouring authorities in the pay leagues, including Chorley councillors, who get 3,989.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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