Cheshire East: Deputy leader says he can't live on £30k pay

Craig Browne was first elected to the council in 2015

A council deputy leader said he can no longer afford to do the role on £30,000 a year.

Independent councillor Craig Browne said the post at Cheshire East Council was "financially unsustainable" for him.

He described the role as a "full-time job on a part-time salary".

But he said if plans to allow members to be paid more than one special responsibility allowance (SRA) had come earlier he might have stayed on.

The plans would see councillors with more than one extra role be allowed to claim two SRAs.

Under the currently policy, a councillor receives a basic allowance of £12,851 - which, like other payments, will be frozen for the coming year.

The allowance for deputy leader is £17,820.

If the new policy was approved, and Mr Brown stayed on in his other role as highways committee chairman, he would receive an extra £12,485, meaning he would receive a total of £43,156 rather than the current £30,671.

Mr Browne will leave the posts of deputy leader and highways chairman at the end of the month to join Citizen's Advice North Staffordshire as chief executive.

But he will stay on as a ward councillor.

He said if the new allowance proposals had been put forward nine months ago, there was "every likelihood" he would not be standing down.

"I'm leaving these roles not because I want to, but because I've got to, and I've got to because it has become financially unsustainable for me to continue," he said.

"If it's a full-time role, it removes the option of going out and earning a salary, so how are you supposed to survive unless you are either retired or independently wealthy?"

The new SRA plans will go to a voter later this month

Labour council leader Sam Corcoran told the committee there were "members of our council who have given up jobs to work for the council and are struggling financially".

Independent councillor Mark Goldsmith said it would bring Cheshire East in line with almost all other councils.

But the Conservative group leader Janet Clowes proposed an amendment to remove the recommendation permitting councillors to claim two SRAs.

This was voted down by Labour and the Independents.

Conservative councillor Jos Saunders said: "At the moment our residents are being asked to have, potentially, their recycling centres mothballed, they're being asked to pay an uplift in green bin charges.

"As a council, we've already gone through... the challenges that are facing us, and having this will actually mean that we spend more money."

A final decision will be made at full council on 27 February .