Sing -a-long with WW
New research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance reveals that £699 million has been paid out to local councillors in allowances over the last three years. In an era of increasing pressure on local authority resources, it is essential that every penny is spent wisely and above inflation rises in payments to councillors are difficult to justify.
Key findings of the research:
- A total of £699 million was paid out in allowances between 2012-13 and 2014-15
- At least 238 councils raised the basic allowance and 208 councils raised the total bill for allowances and expenses between 2012-13 and 2014-15
- If every council had paid the median value of allowances in each type of authority, at least £113 million would have been saved.
GUESS WHO HITS THE TOP SPOT FOR INCREASES IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY?
YOUR WAVERLEY!
- Big spenders:
- The largest percentage increase in the rate of the basic allowance between 2012-13 and 2014-15 was 83 per cent in Waverley Council: £2,454 to £4,501
Then of course there are the attendance allowances for turning up and the travelling expenses and the extra responsibility allowances , and the Mayoral perks and free car parking and on… and there we were all thinking that serving the public was supposed to be giving something back!
Click here to see the full briefing note
Click here for a breakdown of every council in the country
Alternatively, to access the breakdown in Excel, please click here
Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
“Taxpayers will be shocked to discover the rate at which councillors’ allowances have risen over the last three years, despite local authorities pleading poverty and in many cases raising Council Tax or cutting services.
“It goes to show that not every council has prioritised finding savings or cutting taxes over awarding local politicians above inflation allowances. With the nation’s finances yet to be fixed, councillors across the country will continue to have to make difficult decisions. In order for them to have the moral authority to carry out that very important job, councillors must show restraint when it comes to their own taxpayer-funded allowances and ease the burden on hard-pressed families!
WOW! an 83% increase not bad eh! – and the Waverley Web has done a little more research helped by our mounting band of followers and contributors to determine what did it do at the same time the council gave itself a huge increase? It cut the grants to the voluntary sector!
Well done Waverley – “Your Waverley” congratulates you for being singled out by the National Organisation The Taxpayers’ Alliance for taking top spot in the whole country!
Perhaps someone should consider voting one of these guys in when the next borough council by-election is held?
Now you need to be a little fairer towards WBC councillors – yes there was a substantial increase in allowances paid but this was a catch up exercise after allowances had been frozen for several years and I understand that the new higher rate is still below the national average paid to all Councillors. There were some Councillors (David Munro being one) who did not accept the higher allowance until he was re-elected. I do not think that the new higher allowance of £4,500 is unreasonable so long as a councillor does their job properly and attends as many of the meetings of which they are members. I do believe that the time is right to review the numberrof councillors.
Thank you, and we do not wish to be unfair. You are absolutely right, and from further investigation it would appear that the huge increase was as a result of allowances being frozen. However, from looking back at the paperwork, when this increase was agreed it was also agreed to reduce the number of councillors from 57 to 52! However, WW is not aware this has been achieved.