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| September 22, 2009, 3:33pm |
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Taxpayers will have to shell out an extra £10,000 to pay for extra perks for a handful of West Berkshire councillors.
The Tory administration has added five new committees in recent years, and an independent expenses panel has recommended that they get an extra bonus on top of the basic £6,000 a year councillor ‘pay’, due to an increase in meetings.
Councillors already cost local taxpayers £500,000 a year in expenses – equivalent to a 1% council tax rise.
Councillors meet on Thursday to discuss the issue. |
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| 40 |
| September 22, 2009, 4:39pm |
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Lets pay them properly - otherwise pay peanuts get monkeys. However, if we had quality we wouldn't need quantity. Do that and potentially there is a lower cost overall. Oh well, that won't happen. |
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| user23.3 |
| September 22, 2009, 6:34pm |
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Up to 6 grand a year? Seriously, checkout staff in supermarkets get paid more.
Isn't it about time we started paying the people who make the big decisions in West Berkshire a decent wage that doesn't exclude many people from standing for election? |
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 blackdog |
| September 22, 2009, 6:45pm |
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Up to 6 grand a year? Seriously, checkout staff in supermarkets get paid more.
Isn't it about time we started paying the people who make the big decisions in West Berkshire a decent wage that doesn't exclude many people from standing for election?
Being a Councillor is not a full time job - most of them have those as well. Most, if not all of the rest are pensioners. Do we really want to go down the road of full time local politicians? |
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| brian |
| September 22, 2009, 7:02pm |
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We could reduce that budget by getting rid of the party structure. |
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| user23.3 |
| September 22, 2009, 8:00pm |
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We could reduce that budget by getting rid of the party structure.
Banning political parties might not be the best move. |
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| brian |
| September 22, 2009, 10:12pm |
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Banning political parties might not be the best move.
Why is that then ?? |
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| Meddler |
| September 23, 2009, 11:39am |
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Up to 6 grand a year? Seriously, checkout staff in supermarkets get paid more.
Isn't it about time we started paying the people who make the big decisions in West Berkshire a decent wage that doesn't exclude many people from standing for election?
But they're not the people who make the 'big decisions' are they? They're there to rubberstamp what highly paid officials want. The 'lay' aspect is important, but when done badly just leads to loads of thickos having the true impact of things (ie green meanies, Park Way delays) examined. I don't know how the Tories have the nerve to cut back on planners, admin staff etc, and pay themselves more! |
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| user23.3 |
| September 23, 2009, 5:05pm |
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Why is that then ??
Banning political parties can often be one of the first steps in implementing any form of dictatorship. |
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| brian |
| September 24, 2009, 10:40pm |
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Banning political parties can often be one of the first steps in implementing any form of dictatorship.
To have a dictatorship, one needs a dictator, something like Mr Carter. |
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| GMR |
| September 25, 2009, 11:05am |
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I read in the paper that WBC were in the red so how can they talk about pay rises? |
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| Greenham Common |
| September 25, 2009, 11:49am |
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Never mind, it is barely 1% of the total budget...bloody old people.  |
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| blackdog |
| September 25, 2009, 7:25pm |
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Never mind, it is barely 1% of the total budget...bloody old people.
It is interesting that we have to foot the bill because Sovereign find that one of their old folks homes is uneconomical. Why don't they have to find alternative places for the displaced folk - after all they own/run most of the places they will be relocated to. And what is going to happen to the place that is closed? I suspect that it won't be handed back to the Council (assuming it was an ex-council home like most of Sovereign's property). If Sovereign are acting in a commercial way, should their charitable status be removed? |
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| blackdog |
| September 25, 2009, 7:40pm |
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Councillors already cost local taxpayers £500,000 a year in expenses – equivalent to a 1% council tax rise.
WBC's budget is running at around £100M, 25% of which is raised via Council Tax. So £500k is 2% of the Council Tax. And repayment of their currently projected overspend this year (£820k) will require a 3.3% increase in Council Tax - unless they can persuade central government to share the burden (not sure how likely that is). |
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| Greenham Common |
| September 25, 2009, 10:10pm |
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It is interesting that we have to foot the bill because Sovereign find that one of their old folks homes is uneconomical. Why don't they have to find alternative places for the displaced folk - after all they own/run most of the places they will be relocated to. And what is going to happen to the place that is closed? I suspect that it won't be handed back to the Council (assuming it was an ex-council home like most of Sovereign's property). If Sovereign are acting in a commercial way, should their charitable status be removed?
Articulated brilliantly what I was thinking. I thought HAs were obliged to deal with these issues and I'd say homeless old folk would come quite close to the top of the list of most important. |
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