Tories brush aside bid to freeze allowances in Arun

The attempt by the council's Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent members was easily defeated by the Conservative majority.

It means councillors will see their current basic payment of 4,685 boosted by four per cent. This is at least twice the rate of inflation.

The increase took effect from September 1, having been agreed at a meeting of the full council the following night.

It follows a recommendation from a three-strong independent panel which reviewed the amounts councillors are paid. its findings were debated by the council's governance committee in July before they came to the

full council.

But the prospect of the rise prompted complaints from the opposition members at a time of general economic hardship.

Simon McDougall, the Lib Dem group leader, said: "With the economic conditions, this council should not be looking at any increase in the basic rate whatsoever. Everything should be frozen in my view. We should be sympathetic with the public mood."

Fellow Lib Dem member Dr James Walsh said: "At this particular time, this council is apparently doing the exact opposite of what public opinion in this country wants us to do.

"Many, many, many of our constituents out there have not seen any increase in their salaries, or they have disappeared altogether because they have become unemployed.

"What do we do in our ivory tower? We choose to ignore the suffering in Arun and award ourselves a four per cent increase."

Labour group leader Mike Northeast said: "In this economic climate, a nil increase and a standstill budget would be a much better message to send out to the public and our staff."

The only exception to the standstill would be the rise in the audit committee chairman's allowance because it was generally agreed the previous amount of 250 should be raised to 3,750 to tie in with other councillors in similar roles.

But the council's Tory leader, Gillian Brown, defended the increase. She said councillors had not seen their basic allowance rise for two years.

This had been made possible by rejigging some of the other allowances paid for special responsibilities to enable the overall budget to stay unchanged.

Agreeing the opposition's proposal would mean throwing out all the panel's recommendations.

"By going back to last year's budget, and adding on the audit committee chairman's rise, we will be over budget," she pointed out. "The opposition can't have it both ways."

The panel's chairman, Sandy Pascoe, told councillors: "This year, we were very mindful of the economic situation and we have been constantly reminded by members to keep this fact in mind and to keep within the budget."

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