LauraM wrote:
I thought the people of Bournemouth did have a say - the people on the "independent panel" that suggested the rises?

Council leader Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin, who is set to pocket almost £36,000 a year, stressed the recommendations had been made by an independent panel.

adrian fudge wrote:
What makes this worse is if you look at the cuts they are proposing to accomodate this rise Boredom Busters £20K Youth Service £91K Playgrounds £65K Comunity Safety Projects £10K Fernheath Play Association (09/10 onwards) £20K Community Parks & Countryside Team £195K I know this is more than the allowances but also concider that they are proposing to spend an extra £104K on BH Life so you will know how wonderful they are on a more frequent basis ,£500K on the "Town Centre Vision", additional Arts Subsidy (that is idetified as for the Winter Gardens ,which has been demolished ) and are spending a extra £300K on a Green Bin collection to replace the bag collection that was working satisfactorily With the cuts in the youth orinentated services this will probably lead to more anti-social behaviour If they feel that they are being underpaid (LOL) why not catch up at say a max 10% per annum and if they got rid of the extra Cabinet members they appointed and stuck to the original policy that nobody could claim more than one special responsability allowance they would not have to increase the Budget for this at all

Dave wrote:
Wanted part time person to attend meetings when it suits you. Experiance with making mistakes an advantage. All expences paid. Salary £36,000pa.

godzilla wrote:
Tempting but I have morals and would not make a good councillor

Vernon Crepe wrote:
This is another example of what the the Council is all about, money! Does anyone our there have a thread of respect left for them?

bea wrote:
Last year the councillors voted for a zero per cent rise in allowances! Allowances are taxable income and are taxed.There should be some method of ensuring that Councillors attend meetings, currently it seems to be left to Councillors' consciences and some people, Ron Whittaker and Anne Rey in particular are more conscientious than others.

Mark wrote:

bea wrote:
Last year the councillors voted for a zero per cent rise in allowances! Allowances are taxable income and are taxed.There should be some method of ensuring that Councillors attend meetings, currently it seems to be left to Councillors' consciences and some people, Ron Whittaker and Anne Rey in particular are more conscientious than others.

It has already been said that our independant Councillors are more concientious than many others. With the local tories undermining their own party with this town hall greed perhaps our revenge should be taken at national level.
Ron Whittaker MP or Anne Rey MP, maybe we don't agree with everything they say but at least they would be there for the right reasons - serving the community not themselves!

PokesdownMark wrote:
What are the councillors allowances at other councils?

seven year itch wrote:

PokesdownMark wrote: What are the councillors allowances at other councils?

About £40K at some councils, look up the figures for unitary councils in England and Wales and you'll get the information. The current allowance is about £7K per year and if as the independant body say a good councillor put in about 30 hours per week I'd say that was pretty good value for money. If its true the cabinet are working virtually full-time and they are doing it for about £15k a year then I have nothing but respect for them if they do all that for such a pittance. Quite frankly who would take such massive responsibility, be abused all the time and get it in the neck whatever they did for such terrible money. I am surprised by the venom on this site. If you think its all so easy then stand for election which you won't because you don't have enough sense of public duty to do such a huge amount of work for such a pittance. No wonder the councils in in this country are run by retired men or successful business people who the hell else could afford to do it? If you want to attract a cross section then councils need to pay reasonable allowance - how else will they attract experienced and skillful people. Cllr's take ultimate responsibility over and above officers who are paid in excess of £60k per year and our own councils chief exec about £120K. People have to be able to pay their blooming mortgage. Stick this job in the private sector and you'd be talking 6 figures why all the meanness?

PETE WOODLEY wrote:
SO MUCH FOR DEMOCRACY. My comments re macloughlin and beesley,and inviting you to phone them have been removed,now we know where the echo stands,and who knows who it stinks,macs and beasleys numbers are in Home News and can be got from town hall phone them.this is dictatorship

Mike Pickering wrote:
36 grand a year, that's rubbish..You can earn more than that in thousands of industries, without much training in many too. I earn that much working 6 hours a day - I guess it just goes to show what grade of person does the job, someone who couldn't manage a computer programming course or complete a degree.
Honestly, if we paid them twice or three times that the position might attract someone with more than a passing intelligence and/or creativity and some of the problems the town has might actually be solved. Can you imagine a successful company with the scope that the council has to fill paying it's ceo 36grand ?
Peanuts and monkeys, I'm afraid, you get what you pay for.

seven year itch wrote:

PokesdownMark wrote: What are the councillors allowances at other councils?

About £40K at some councils, look up the figures for unitary councils in England and Wales and you'll get the information. The current allowance is about £7K per year and if as the independant body say a good councillor put in about 30 hours per week I'd say that was pretty good value for money. If its true the cabinet are working virtually full-time and they are doing it for about £15k a year then I have nothing but respect for them if they do all that for such a pittance. Quite frankly who would take such massive responsibility, be abused all the time and get it in the neck whatever they did for such terrible money. I am surprised by the venom on this site. If you think its all so easy then stand for election which you won't because you don't have enough sense of public duty to do such a huge amount of work for such a pittance. No wonder the councils in in this country are run by retired men or successful business people who the hell else could afford to do it? If you want to attract a cross section then councils need to pay reasonable allowance - how else will they attract experienced and skillful people. Cllr's take ultimate responsibility over and above officers who are paid in excess of £60k per year and our own councils chief exec about £120K. People have to be able to pay their blooming mortgage. Stick this job in the private sector and you'd be talking 6 figures why all the meanness?

Dave wrote:
Wanted part time person to attend meetings when it suits you. Experiance with making mistakes an advantage. All expences paid. Salary £36,000pa.

Dave wrote:
Wanted part time person to attend meetings when it suits you. Experiance with making mistakes an advantage. All expences paid. Salary £36,000pa.

Tim Aker wrote:
The TaxPayers' Alliance has gathered all councillor contact details from the council website. Click this link to lobby Bournemouth Councillors to vote against this pay hike:

http://tpa.typepad.c
om/campaign/2008/02/
can-you-spare-j.html


Keep up the fight, we have to hold this council to account.

Tim Aker
The TaxPayers' Alliance
www.taxpayersallianc
e.com

fedupwithjobsworths wrote:

PETE WOODLEY wrote:
SO MUCH FOR DEMOCRACY. My comments re macloughlin and beesley,and inviting you to phone them have been removed,now we know where the echo stands,and who knows who it stinks,macs and beasleys numbers are in Home News and can be got from town hall phone them.this is dictatorship

If the telephone numbers you gave were Council numbers then I agree with you, if they were private numbers then I think the Echo was right in removing your comment – we are all entitled to some privacy in our private lives.

Council Telephone numbers and Email addresses for all these people can be readily found on the CouncilÂ’s Website.

dailyechoreader wrote:
As an employee of the same council who will recieve the 17-36% pay rise, I am disappointed. I work some unsociable hours, with some difficult people, under sometimes difficult circumstances. My last pay rise was a mere 2.5%, 2.4% below the 4.9% council tax increase and 14.5 - 33.5% below their salary increase. What makes their job so much more than mine?

Mike Pickering wrote:
36 grand a year, that's rubbish..You can earn more than that in thousands of industries, without much training in many too. I earn that much working 6 hours a day - I guess it just goes to show what grade of person does the job, someone who couldn't manage a computer programming course or complete a degree. Honestly, if we paid them twice or three times that the position might attract someone with more than a passing intelligence and/or creativity and some of the problems the town has might actually be solved. Can you imagine a successful company with the scope that the council has to fill paying it's ceo 36grand ? Peanuts and monkeys, I'm afraid, you get what you pay for.