COUNCILLORS are set to get a 10 per cent pay rise after an independent body decided they deserved it. But only if they continue to attend regular meetings.

And members of Blackburn with Darwen Council will also be entitled to childcare and dependent allowances under a plan being drawn up by an independent remuneration panel.

Under new government rules, councillors no longer claim attendance allowance but receive an annual 'wage' made up of a basic plus extra for special responsibilities.

It is a system Blackburn with Darwen introduced when it created its cabinet-style system of meetings, which, after a trial period ending this month, is set to be full adopted by the council.

At the heart of the new allowances system is a rise in basic allowance from £4,035 to £5,600 per year. But the majority of special allowances are set to be reduced, with the exception of the leader of the council members of his cabinet, and the leader of the main opposition.

Ian Woolley, the remuneration panel chairman, said the result should be an overall rise of 10 per cent for members, with new rates for childcare and dependent carers' allowance.

But job descriptions will be created so councillors know exactly what their position entails. They will have to produce annual accountability reports so people can see how they have earned the cash.

The annual amount paid to councillors is expected to rise from £406,318 to £450,300.

Mr Woolley said: "We are recommending increases which average about 10 per cent.

"We have recommended increases in the basic allowance paid to all Councillors as this is presently low in relation to comparable authorities.

"However, we feel that the increase must be earned and we have recommended that all councillors should have job descriptions and be required to produce publicly available accountability reports at the end of each year. A scheme for recouping carers and child care costs will also be introduced."

Mr Woolley added: "It is important that we attract and retain people from as wide a cross section of the community to serve on local councils. We hope our proposals at least go some way to achieving that objective, whilst strengthening public accountability.

"We produced a scheme for the pilot phase based on a re-allocation of the previous budget. The Council left us free to determine the overall level.

"We considered allowances in similar authorities, interviewed a range of councillors from all parties and asked councillors to fill in diaries so we could see how much time was being taken up by council work and the different aspects of a councillor's role."

"We also had regard to emerging Government advice in particular, to reduce the number of Councillors who receive special responsibility allowances."

He added: "We were also struck by the wide range of responsibilities particularly for Executive Board Members and the sheer scale of the operation, equivalent to a private company with a turnover of £300m per year."