Councillor refuses increased expenses
Rother District Councillors are being urged not to take extra expenses rubber-stamped by Cabinet.
Councillor Charlie Clark said he was "amazed" by the Cabinet decision to accept the inflation link increase in members' expenses when the overview and scrutiny committee had already recommended blocking it as a goodwill gesture to members of the public.
Cllr Clark, of St Michael's ward, said: "I do not see this as a political matter but a cost saving; freezing councillors' allowances would have saved 7,500 at a time when every penny counts.
"Councillors do not have to accept the increase, which is around 163 for the 38 councillors, they are free to make up their own minds.
"I will not be accepting the increase, and hope other councillors will follow my lead. I have already informed the council's treasurers' department of my decision.
"Councillors need to show they are in touch with the concerns of Rother residents.
"Many residents in Rother are facing hard times, many have lost their jobs, while others who have low-paid jobs have had to accept a wage freeze to stay there.
"I am not happy to accept an increase in my allowances while others in the community who I represent are suffering real hardship."
Cllr Sue Prochak was the member at scrutiny committee who put forward the proposal to block the increase.
This move was then criticised during the Cabinet meeting by RDC leader Carl Maynard who dubbed it an attempt to politicise the issue when this was the province of an independent panel which approved the rise in line with inflation three years ago.
Cllr Prochak gave her reaction to the Observer this week and said: "For a start this shows that scrutiny doesn't work.
"It was a unanimous decision that this increase would not stand."
She claimed that Cllr Maynard had described the money in question as "a trivial amount" and that she did not agree.
She commented: "For me, I thought this would be a collective decision to show that, while everybody else is hurting in terms of the recession, with people for instance losing interest on their savings, and a lot of them suffering, this would be a gesture to the public to say we would not have that increase.
"I was really disappointed I was accused of making it political when it was an across-party decision from scrutiny to do this.
"I thought the leader made it political himself by saying they weren't going to follow the recommendation."
Cllr Maynard was unavailable to comment on the increase in expenses this week.
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