Councillors pay freeze proposals 'distasteful'

Bernie Bentick said he considered the plans "political point scoring"

A senior Shropshire councillor has called a proposal to cancel their pay rise "incredulous and distasteful".

Labour councillor Rosemary Dartnall had called for a freeze on allowances with the cash-strapped council needing to find huge savings.

Only the Labour members backed the motion, which was defeated, with Conservative Ed Potter calling for a wider debate about how councillors across the country are paid.

Bernie Bentick, a member of the cabinet on the Liberal Democrat-run council said he was amazed by suggestions allowances should fall even further behind the national minimum wage.

Currently councillors receive £14,378 a year for the work they carry out, which is due to increase by £460.

It works out at £11.27 an hour, below the national living wage - currently £12.21 an hour for people aged 21 and over.

Lib Dem councillor Rob Wilson said he could not support the motion

Mr Potter said many councillors were at a disadvantage, especially if they were a parent or carer, or self-employed.

"Since May, this is a far more diverse chamber," he said.

"I don't want to see any blocks put in place that will prevent people becoming a councillor. At times, it is a thankless task."

'Mortgage to pay'

Lib Dem councillor Rob Wilson, cabinet member for transport and economic growth, said he was earning less than minimum wage and had no pension contributions.

"I am a working-age father-of-two, and am working full-time shoulder-to-shoulder with our members of staff to try and rescue this council," he said.

"I have a mortgage to pay and have to do the weekly shop. I cannot support this motion."

At a full council meeting on Thursday, Labour group leader councillor Rosemary Dartnall said freezing councillors' allowances would save £44,500 in the current financial year, adding that it would make a "strong statement" to the public and Shropshire Council staff.

Even though it is a small sum compared with the savings needed by the local authority, she said "every penny" counted.

Reform UK's Dawn Husemann said the council needed young people with families and childcare costs to be represented on the local authority

Dawn Husemann, leader of the Reform UK group on the council, the official opposition, strongly criticised the Labour proposal.

"I think I need to call out the total hypocrisy of Labour and their union paymasters who think it is okay to hold the country to ransom whilst demanding inflation-busting pay rises for people who are already paid more than most ordinary people can dream of - like Tube drivers who recently brought London to a virtual standstill - but then expect me to work for less than minimum hourly rate due to the hours that I am working," she said.

"We need young people with families, mortgages and childcare costs – their time is valuable and it needs to be funded so they can play their central part in our democracy."

Labour's Kate Halliday said she was taken aback by the response

Labour councillor Kate Halliday said she took unpaid leave to carry out council business, and was "a little bit taken aback" by the response.

"We're talking about a year's freeze on our allowance, yet we are expecting the public to take multiple hits to services while finding ways to save money," she said.

Fellow Labour councillor Caroline Bagnall said she accepted how "rubbish" the money was, but that many who were also town or parish councillors did not get paid for that either.

"Our job is to make things right for our local communities... we can't have it both ways, saying we want to keep our leisure centre and library and all our roads need to be pothole-free but we also want our allowance to go up," she said.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.