Roger Gambba-Jones

The old chestnut of member's allowances came up at full council last Wednesday.  It's always contentious and never a comfortable subject for the members to discuss or vote on.  In these increasingly desperate financial times, this was of course an easy target for the opposition to seize upon.  We heard a range of opportunistic remarks about how hard the taxpayers were finding it and how the proposed rise should not be approved because of this.  Elected members are also taxpayers, so it is not as if we are on the outside looking in!

The rise proposed by an independent panel was below the actual headline inflation rate and made no attempt to address the issue of parity with the Local Government day rate that has been a theme over the last few years.

Asking members to approve or reject the level of their own allowances is always going to be political sensitive and is never going to be well received by taxpayers and giving members the opportunity to make political capital out of it, just makes the situation worse. 

Personally, I think members should be restricted from making any comment on the level of any proposed rises, that does not relate directly to the appropriateness or otherwise of them.  If they feel that all members have performed poorly and therefore do not deserve any increase (including inflation only rises) then that's fair enough.  Likewise, if the special responsibility allowances are seen as undeserved that year, the same should apply.  Playing the, ‘I'm going to stand shoulder to should with the taxpayer and vote against any increase' card is just political grandstanding!

I also believe that members should be directed to keep quite about whether or not they are going to accept any increases.  Going on the record about such a decision is, in my personal opinion, political opportunism of the worst kind and merely serves to put unfair pressure on those of us who choose not to make any public utterances about such things. 

Fine, don't take the allowance, that's your choice, however keep it to yourself - it's nobody else's business is it?  Unless of course you're just doing it to make a cheap political point!  Hopefully, the public won't be fooled by such a cheap shot!   

From another point of view, we keep rabbiting on about getting a better mix of people to become elected members (even if they're only independents - for those who read the LG First mag ).  If we're really serious about this, then it has to be accepted that the level of allowances could possibly play a part in some people's considerations.  If, having recruited somebody of modest means to be an elected member, you then embarrass them every 12 months, by discussing the level of the allowances and making them feel guilty about accepting them, you won't keep them for very long will you!

The most recent casualties of the credit crunch, local councils, have come in for some stick from taxpayers because of the mysterious way local government appears to manage its finances - I can't say as I blame them, the whole process is a mystery to most elected members! 

The public outcry about these bulging foreign bank accounts shows that local councils don't do a very good job of telling people how it all works when it comes to setting the level of council tax.  Why they ask, does my council keep saying that it's either raise the council tax or cut services, when they have millions of pounds in the bank!

The money in these accounts comes from various sources and sits in these bank accounts for different lengths of time.  Long term accounts tend to be used for money being set aside for major projects such as new sports centre, community centres, public parks etc.  Other short term accounts are used to hold the money collected on behalf of government such as the business rates, so that the council can gain some interest on the cash before it is passed on to the Treasury. 

Other money is put in to accounts as a buffer for the day to day running of things because the government pays the grant we get in stages, but the bills arrive every day!  It's also there as a contingency fund, where emergency funds might be required to provide specialist help or emergency accommodation to those affected.  On a more mundane level, it has also helped councils cover the huge increases in fuel costs we've all suffered.  On occasion, heaven forbid, it may also be needed to deal with legal costs.  The interest earned from these deposits also gives the council some extra funds to put towards the council tax, thereby limiting the amount of the annual rise.

So, whilst the loss of these funds will not have an immediate effect, it will certainly have a long term one, because councils are not just collecting money and salting it away because they like counting it.  Incidentally, SHDC doesn't appear to have any cash at risk, unlike some of our neighbours.