Allowances are always a difficult subject. Every so often there has to be an allowances review carried out by independent folk. During the process, councillors get to fill in a questionnaire and some are interviewed. There is always a balance to be struck on allowances especially if the lack of them is a barrier to getting people to stand for election.

Ideally, this is a time that who gets what can be reviewed and adjusted to reflect work load and responsibilities. Some roles involve a lot more effort and time than others. I was keen to see members of the planning control committee be rewarded for the huge amount of work they undertake. (I am not a member of the planning control committee!!!). My comments had no impact although I know others also made the same point. This was disappointing.

I thought some other roles should receive less allowance but again I didn’t make any impact on this. Again, disappointing.

In summary, the basic allowance is going up by 5% and not much else is changing. I’m not sure we needed a four person review team to come up with this. When it came to voting, I made it clear to the Conservative group that it was a free vote.

Interestingly, The Conservatives did not vote for the increase in allowances but Labour, Independents, Lib Dem and Green all did. I’m not sure councillors increasing their allowances right now is the right thing to do given the current economic climate. Perhaps the recent £52k fraud against West Suffolk Council, which equates to a 0.5% increase in Council tax could have been offset by this increase in allowances not going through.