Before the spelling police comment, that obviously should be "tax" and not "taz"

Oliver's got in early with the photo shoot. i see that the conservatives say that the lib dems voted for some of there own cllr allowances to be increased ! is this true and if so what is the thinking behind the increases.

slim Wrote:

Oliver's got in early with the photo shoot. i see that the conservatives say that the lib dems voted for some of there own cllr allowances to be increased ! is this true and if so what is the thinking behind the increases.

This happened at the council meeting in September.It particularly related to the chairman of the licensing committee. The Consevatives voted it against the increase of a c.£2000 per annum.

When I was elected I took a cut in my allowance, making mine the lowest of all 63 councillors in Stockport.

I think the idea that you ever accept the blame when things go wrong is laughable.

It is Tory policy, it is the Tories that have given Council's the opportunity to do this.

OliverJohnstone Wrote:

I think the idea that you ever accept the blame when things go wrong is laughable.

Occasions when political parties of any colour accept blame for the things that happen on their watch do happen now and then, but they're vanishingly rare! One of the things I like about Labour under Mr Ed is that he, and one or two of his colleagues have at least started to do so. Not enough of them, not often enough, and not thorough-goingly enough - there's a lot that needs apologizing for: but it's so unusual for it to happen at all that I think you've got to acknowledge and welcome it.

OliverJohnstone Wrote:

It is Tory policy, it is the Tories that have given Council's the opportunity to do this.

True, though saying that simply underlines how relatively little independence of action local councils have. Britain's always been a centralized country and, in England at any rate, it's central government that holds the purse strings and calls the shots. The pressure on local councils to do what the guys and girls in Whitehall and Westminster want to see done is always considerable, and often irresistable. Having said that, Oliver's got a point. While local authority services in Stockport don't strike me as at all bad in comparison with the other areas where I've lived, it's a fact that the council tax has steadily risen year on year during the years when they've been in charge - a trend which only stopped when the government offered a mix of carrot and stick to encourage them to freeze it. And it's also true that Trafford MBC, Greater Manchester's only Tory-controlled council (well, usually Tory; just occasionally it's briefly voted Labour in) has managed to keep its council tax noticeably lower than Stockport's. Whether that means poorer council services I can't judge, having never lived in those parts since I was a youngster.