NOW that details of the councillors' allowances scheme are available, the means of payment in subsequent years becomes clearer.

The increases for the 48 elected members were drawn up by an independent review body chaired by Sir David Trippier and agreed by the council on the basis that there would be an annual increase at the same rate as the local authority pay award. The chief executive, after consultation with senior members of the council, has authority to amend the levels of allowances payable subject to any financial ceilings contained in the regulations.

Remuneration is based on every councillor receiving a basic annual allowance - unless they opt to forego any payment - of £3,960 plus out-of-pocket expenses, cost of travel and telephone. In addition, payment will be paid for additional responsibility and, in the event that a councillor has more than one special responsibility, only the highest will be paid. To my understanding this means that in the case of the leader of the council, or the leader of the largest group on the council, the additional payment for extra responsibility will be £13,920 with reduced payments to the deputy and leaders of the smaller groups. For cabinet members the extra payment is £5,160 (there are seven of them), for chairmen of area boards the figure is £4,128 (there are 16 of them) and leading spokespersons receive an extra £1,032 (there are 21 of them). So, as I see it, every councillor receives the basic allowance plus an extra responsibility payment, as well as expenses.

To qualify for the basic allowance payment a councillor is only required to attend 25 per cent of the meetings of the council, committees and sub-committees of which they are a member. In my opinion, this figure is far too low and councillors should be required to attend at least 60 per cent of meetings to qualify in order to give the electorate value for money.

I am also concerned about the number of scrutiny review panels, of which there are five, which seem to duplicate the work of five of the cabinets.

A. WITHINGTON,

Wellington Road,

Bury.

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