Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

My aim in life is to make others happy :)

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

Area Councils will continue and evolve into more resident focused groups.

They cost £6,000 per meeting and the chair gets £170 per meeting fee. We will reduce the budget per meeting to around £800 with NO FEE for the chair.

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

Can they be as effective and will people still chair if there is no financial recompense?

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

I would still chair the meeting without the £170 - I don't think Councillors should claim all these expenses - it's part of the job. I think the basic compensation should be sufficient.

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

Ok you got me interested.
What is it that costs £6000?
How will you do it for £800?
How many Council Officers will be made redundant by making the savings?
The Chair gets £170. What do the other Councillors and Co-Optees get?

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

What is it that costs £6000?
Staffing costs mainly. Somewhere in the region of £180,000 (last time I asked) plus add on expenses of rooms, other staff time. This produces 27 Area Council meetings. 9 Area Councils, 3 meetings per year each. Chairs get £500 per year for the 3 meetings. Other councillors get nothing (quite correctly). There are usually a couple of extra Area Councils a year so if we work on 30 meetings, £180,000. Thats £6,000 per meeting is staffing costs.

How will you do it for £800?
I need to check but roughly Labour will leave a much reduced budget to help arrange the current meetings with on the night help (tables chairs etc..) from wardens (who had begun doing that recently). £800 is the average from the revised budget and number of meetings.

How many Council Officers will be made redundant by making the savings?
I will check but most Area Council Staff.

The Chair gets £170. What do the other Councillors and Co-Optees get?
Nothing

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

That's interesting Graham. I wonder how many Area Council meetings Peter I'm-worth-every-penny Britcliffe Chairs? And what are the allowances for the other meetings that he chairs? Nice little earner, being leader of the council. At those rates it is little wonder that there is nowt left in the pot to pay for things that really need doing.

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

I am sure Graham will answer you but I would put my money on one. He chairs the Oswaldtwistle meeting. I don't see how he can chair any outside his own area.

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

I think Neil is right about the Area Council meetings, in that there are three Ossy Area Council meetings per year and it's supposed to switch between the three wards. Each ward is supposed to chair the meeting when it's in their ward so he does only chair it once a year.

Didn't we have a thread on here some time ago about Councillor expenses and who claimed what.

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

Thats not what I meant Gayle. The wondering around Ossy is a recent silly idea by the Area Council. They used to be always at the Civic Theatre. Who wants to sit on kiddie chairs at a school in Knuzden? Not me again thanks. If you noticed at the one in the church near the Co-Op, Peter was still chair and only passed over for some of the meeting. I wonder who got the £170 ;)

I meant that Peter will only sit on the Ossy Area Council meetings as Graham will only sit on his own ward's Area Council.

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

Oh, sorry, slightly misunderstood - yes pretty sure he'll only do Oswaldtwistle ones.

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

The chair is nominated at the start of the year and gets £500 for the 3 meetings. However Peter won't get the alowance as chair because Council rules say you can only claim one extra special allowance (obviously he gets an extra allowance as leader).

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

So Peter chairs the meetings for free, what a nice public spirited chap ;).
Graham, does it state all this interesting allowance information and who claims what on the HBC website?

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

Wardens ? PCSOs ? Whatever happened to proper police personnel ? Surely after almost 10 years in office a LABOUR GOVERNMENT could at least give us proper front line services ? Plenty of funding for troops in Iraq but nowt for frightened, intimidated old dears in Accy. Friend Jones seems willing to make feeble excuses and offer platitudes, but no real criticism of his own Party, whose Government is the real culprit.

Re: Britcliffe Monthly
 

Ok Ralph you are obviously a Tory. Why not explain to all us Hyndburn voters what wonderful achievments the Conservative Local Council have made over the last few years and why we should vote them in again. Unless of course you would prefer to slag off all the opposition without being able to put forward a good argument for the Tories.