Wrong time for a rise (From York Press)

Wrong time for a rise

10:33am Wednesday 19th September 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

I COULD not believe my eyes when I read the Independent Remuneration Panel’s report (The Press, September 13) recommending rises of 35 per cent in councillors’ allowances and almost 25 per cent for some of those with special responsibility.

One wonders how the panel could have ignored with such equanimity today’s fraught economic climate.

I accept the premise that councillors’ allowances “should provide an adequate level of reward so as not to discourage those who wish to stand for office”; nor do I disagree when the panel says the input of the ordinary councillor is equivalent to about two days work a week and that of the council leader to a full-time job.

But such a rise in allowances is not right when the council is making cuts to its services, such as the cruel one of reducing social care provision and the stupid, miserly one of reducing litter bins.

The council’s predecessors did not adopt the increases recommended in 2007 believing them “not to be politically acceptable at the time” and that is even truer today.

Many in York would find the present annual allowance level of £7,192 more than enough reward for two days work per week.

JL Craven, Main Street, Nether Poppleton , York.