Labour against rises in allowances... apparently.

[perseus]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/labour-against-allowances-rise-1-5284934

Interesting. Note the constant references to the referendum leaflet.

[marky]

I think they know they're on to a loser with this one but read carefully the emphasis on there being no support for a rise in basic allowances - no mention of the special responsibility allowances paid to the Committee Chairs or the new Leader of the Council Allowance. With Labour holding all but one of the Committee Chairs, there's still plenty of scope to keep members of the mob happy and now that they've come out against a rise in the basic allowance why doesn't CAB go public with what he actually said to the remuneration panel?
I think they knew they were going to get slated if they carried on with their original position.

[steveL]

How nauseating is the frequent referral to the hard times being experienced by people:
"With so much child poverty, unaffordable energy and heating bills, rent rises, hunger and homelessness it would be obscene to accept any rise no matter how small."

Quite. So you won't be accepting any additional payment as Leader of the Council then or an increase as a Chair of a Committee, Christopher - especially as you already have a well paid, full-time job fully funded by the taxpayer.

Let them eat cake eh?

[testing times]

It would appear that the sheep are, appropriately enough, to be made the sacrificial lambs in favour of the wolves on special responsibility allowances.

[Vincent]

How nauseating is the frequent referral to the hard times being experienced by people:
"With so much child poverty, unaffordable energy and heating bills, rent rises, hunger and homelessness it would be obscene to accept any rise no matter how small."

Quite. So you won't be accepting any additional payment as Leader of the Council then or an increase as a Chair of a Committee, Christopher - especially as you already have a well paid, full-time job fully funded by the taxpayer.

Let them eat cake eh?

They wont be thinking of the poor people when they hike the poll tax to make sure the trough stays full (plus the extra for the cops and fire service)

[fred c]

As Wolfie Smith would say............. "Power to The People". The labour group realised that they would have been pilloried by all & sundry if they went ahead & accepted the rise in allowances, even the mail would have had something to say about it......

The Genuine Labour Councillors must have exerted pressure in the right places to force this result, lets hope they use the same Joined Up Thinking when it comes to the Peer Group Inquiry.

Will the Labour Group now adopt the same stance when it comes to the Special Responsibility Allowances

It would appear that.........."The Mob" are Running Scared......

[for fawkes sake]

I find this all quite interesting. No one will be too worried what appears in The Mail on this matter as Labour seem to have the paper well under control. So what could be behind such nervousness of public reaction?

Answer? I think you're reading it.   

[fred c]

I find this all quite interesting. No one will be too worried what appears in The Mail on this matter as Labour seem to have the paper well under control. So what could be behind such nervousness of public reaction?

Answer? I think you're reading it. 

I thought the users of HTH were a bunch of whinging, moaning trouble causing old codgers living on past memories.........

Good to realise that only some of the above apply, but i agree HTH is a real positive for good in Hartlepool.

[Inspector Knacker]

The captain came upon deck, looked which way the wind was blowing and told the crew there would be a change of course and they'd sail around in wide circles at the entrance to Portaplenty, till the winds slackened and slip in quietly under cover of darkness..........

[steveL]

I find this all quite interesting. No one will be too worried what appears in The Mail on this matter as Labour seem to have the paper well under control. So what could be behind such nervousness of public reaction?

Answer? I think you're reading it. 

I thought the users of HTH were a bunch of whinging, moaning trouble causing old codgers living on past memories.........

Good to realise that only some of the above apply, but i agree HTH is a real positive for good in Hartlepool.

Well I'm an old, fat, failed, wannabe journalist - it's official. 

[marky]

Well I for one don't see the need in the present financial circumstances. We all know there have been job losses at the Civic and I'm sure that there are a number of people now finding themselves with extra responsibilities without any extra pay.
At the same time, Labour has frequently talked of 'going back to the old system' - well the old system doesn't mean paying some exhorbitant amout to the Leader of the Council. In addition, Committee Chairs didn't face a reduction in their special responsibility allowances when the elected Mayor and Cabinet system was introduced so why should they see an increase now?  There won't be any extra planning applications becasue the elected Mayor position is being done away with, for example, so why should the Chair of the Planning Committee get an increase?

[SRMoore]

As reported in the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9791530/Give-councillors-higher-allowances-MPs-say.html

The Conservative Party chairman has accused Labour of a "cynical and sleazy" attempt to use a Commons report to benefit its own party coffers.

Local authorities are not increasing allowances because they are afraid of public criticism, according to a report by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

The MPs said that independent local bodies should be given responsibility for setting allowances to ensure that councillors are paid "an appropriate level of compensation".

They also called for a system of capped compensation for loss of earnings for councillors who take time off work to perform their duties.

Conservatives have hit out at the proposals, saying that becoming a councillor should be a "voluntary public service".

Grant Shapps, Chairman of the Conservative Party, claimed it was a "cynical and sleazy" move by Labour because the Party stands to benefit from higher councillor allowances.

Under rules introduced in 2006, the allowances of Labour councillors are automatically docked by local Labour groups.

"This is a cynical and sleazy move by the Labour Party given their party rules dock the taxpayer-funded allowances of Labour Party councillors," Mr Shapps said.

Councillors do not receive a salary and are instead given a basic allowance.

Those with special responsibility like the council leaders and cabinet members get an extra allowance on top of their initial payments.

The basic allowance varies between local authorities but can be as much as £10,000 a year.

Committee chairman Clive Betts, Labour MP for Sheffield South East, said councillors will not currently vote to award themselves higher allowances "because it provokes so much public controversy".

He said the proposal for setting councillors' allowances was similar to that in place for MPs' pay and expenses, which are set and administered by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

Mr Betts and Mr Shapps clashed today on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"An increase in councillors' allowances will mean an increase in central budgets for the Labour Party," Mr Shapps said.

He claimed that Mr Betts wanted the increases so "money would be channelled straight into Labour coffers".

Mr Betts said it was "unfortunate" that Mr Shapps had made the claims.

"We were not in any way influenced by how much of the councillors allowance goes to the political party," Mr Betts said.