Councillors expenses

At a Special Full Council meeting this week, the Labour Administration delivered on one of its central manifesto promises by voting to freeze basic councillor allowances. This was against the recommendations of the independent panel which had suggested a 2.5% rise.This was a very important decision. Councillor allowances under the previous coalition council crept up to the highest in the whole of the Tees Valley. Allowances are nearly twice what they receive in Hartlepool for instance - although they are not directly comparable, I suppose, as they have a different system of local government with a directly elected Mayor. This situation must stop and the outrageous behaviour of hiking up expenses for personal gain that was done by the greedy Tory and Liberal Coalition Councillors previously has come to an end. My personal position is that we should be looking at the possiblility of maintaining a freeze until our allowances are around the Tees Valley average for the local authorities around us. That is up for debate I suppose but one thing is for sure, the freeze this year will ensure that more money goes into council services rather than Tory Councillors pockets!
 
Cllr Joe Keenan 

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