And so it goes on....

[DRiddle]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/panel-recommends-allowance-rise-1-5543137

We all knew it was coming, but even so... The 'champions of the poor' have just clicked for thousands of pounds a year. Funny, I don't remember electing the Akers-Belcher household as 'mayor(s)' of the town....?

[fred c]

On the reported figures i make it.


£36,656

[The Great Dictator]

Is that joined income ?

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

Curiouser & curiouser ... is it a 'they forced us to get more, honestly they did' set up?

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/group-leaders-reject-rise-1-5543129

[DRiddle]

Fred, if your maths is right (and mine is) that means that 63% of Mayor Drummonds wage has just switched bank accounts and will now be making it's way into the Akers-Belcher household.

So we lose Mr Drummond ............and gain those two.

It's not even like we save 37% of the wages though, because all the other allowances mean the total is MORE than Stuart was being paid.

I can't see where this '£1 Million saving' is going to come from. 

[steveL]

Just as an aside. The IRP Report was only made available to most councillors today yet, even given the publication lag of the Hartlepool Mail these days, there it is in today's edition. The implication here is that the report was given to The Mail well before elected councillors were given a copy - by whom, you may ask.

. . . and as an addition, did anyone notice this little bit of pettiness?

"Under the new system, it is recommended the majority group leader allowance be axed, the principal group leader allowance reduced and secondary group leader allowance scrapped all together."

Wells' allowance as leader of the Tory Group is scrapped altogether while Lilley's, as leader of PHF, is reduce from 60% of the basic allowance to just 30%. Perhaps someone has heard that any financial gain Lilley makes from receiving a group leader allowance goes into PHF campaign funds......I wonder who asked for that?

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

How odd ... it now seems that neither of the links to the Mail's articles are working ...

[DRiddle]

Probably something to do with the influx of public comments slamming the rises that were added to the article within an hour of it going live.

[fred c]

Your probably right DR..... i have made several comments over the last few weeks & they have mysteriously disappeared very shortly afterwards.

It would certainly appear that someone at the Civic "Leaks Reports" to the mail before "Elected Councillors" get to see them...........It isn`the first time & it wont be the last this kind of thing has occured.

By the very nature of this particular leak it can only have come from a highly placed source...... No surprise there then.

[steveL]

View the Full Report: (MS Word)

http://www.hartlepoolpost.co.uk/files/IRP Report April 2013.doc

[whatabouthisthen]

Don't forget CAB was bragging about getting more than £16000 some months ago. He must have known then. Who is on this so called independent remuneration board?
I wonder what HBC employees think about this. I don't think that the Union will oppose their pals' rise.

[not4me]

I think the problem with the Mail will be that they don't put things on the web until they have appeared in print in the paper. It looks like someone has jumped the gun because I don't think it was in the paper tonight (I only glanced at it in ASDA). It's probably tomorrow's main story.

[DRiddle]

Perhaps when it goes to print Allan Barclay will write a letter explaining how the 13% pay rise for all councillors, together with the huge rises for some, has been done purely to protect the public from themselves.

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

Perhaps when it goes to print Allan Barclay will write a letter explaining how the 13% pay rise for all councillors, together with the huge rises for some, has been done purely to protect the public from themselves.

It is surely seen by Mr Barclay as an act of kindness, since we are deemed to need saving from ourselves; after all, we are known for our tendency to hurl chairs around like party-going toddlers chucking jelly at the wall .... 

[SRMoore]

So one week we have the leading Labour figures standing on the steps of the Civic Centre telling the 'poor and vulnerable' that the evil Tories are cutting benefits, jobs and services whilst writing millionaires a cheque; then this week they are to accept a 300% increase in allowance for their leader.

Solidarity Comrades!