Lib Dems call for restraint over Councillors Allowances

Lib Dems call for restraint over Councillors Allowances

Liberal Democrat councillors on Sefton Council are calling for councillors’ pay to be excluded from Labour’s proposal for a 5% across-the-board pay increase from next April.

A motion put forward at Thursday’s (21^st September) Council meeting by the controlling Labour Group says that the council ”supports the NJC pay claim for 2018, submitted by UNISON, GMB and Unite” which calls for “a 5% increase on all pay points”.

However, because Members Allowances in Sefton Council are automatically linked to the average pay increase given to Sefton Council employees, a 5% pay increase for all staff, as Labour are proposing, would also mean a 5% pay increase for councillors.

“That’s simply not right,” say Lib Dem Group Deputy Leader Cllr Daniel Lewis, who is proposing a Lib Dem amendment to stop councillors benefiting from a 5% pay rise.

”So that’s why I am proposing that ‘in no circumstances shall any increase in Members Allowances exceed the increase in the rate of inflation’.  I hope that Labour councillors will agree with me and my fellow Lib Dems that it is wrong to give ourselves a 5% pay increase.”