Members of Northamptonshire County Council have voted to give themselves a pay rise, despite opposition politicians labelling the move “obscene”.
During a meeting of the council today, both the Conservatives and Labour supported plans to increase the amount some councillors with special responsibilities, such as assistant cabinet members, are paid.
The move was attacked by both the Liberal Democrat and UKIP, who will not benefit from the increases.
Councillor Dennis Meredith (Lib Dem, Talavera) said: “I think this is obscene.
“People are really suffering at the moment, so how can the council justify this?”
He was backed by Councillor Sally Beardsworth (Lib Dem, Kingsthorpe South), who added: “This is a step too far in this time of austerity,
“I stands against everything the Labour Party stands for and I don’t think they should be selling themselves down the river for this.
“They should think of the people who are struggling and having to use food banks.”
The move will see new allowances of £5,000 a year given to assistant cabinet members on top of the basic allowance all members get for sitting on the authority.
The vice chairmen of the council’s scrutiny panels will also receive an extra £2,000 a year and the deputy leader of the Labour opposition party will get £8,000.
The chairman of the council’s development control committee will see their special allowance rise to £11,000 and £2,000 will also be given to their deputy.
The chairmen of the council’s personnel and pensions committees will also see their special allowance go up to £10,000 a year and the business manager of the leading Conservative party will see their allowance go up to £10,000.
The leader of the opposition Labour group at County Hall, Councillor John McGhee (Lab, Kingswood) said he was not embarrassed to back the increases and argued that as the number of councillors had recently been cut from 73 to 57, they all now had more work to do.
He said: “I’m not ashamed of this, I think it’s the right thing to do as long as it doesn’t carry on year after year.”
He was backed by the leader of the council, Councillor Jim Harker (Con, Ise) who pointed out that because the overall number of councillors had been cut by 16 in May, the total wages bill had also been be reduced.
He said: “This represents a significant saving of up to £7,000. That’s being handed back to the taxpayer as a result of this decision.
“There’s no extra money - in fact it’s less money. What we’re doing is good news for the people of Northamptonshire.”