Living off the fat of the land.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by garinda

Sorry for confusing your little brain.

Your apology is accepted my friend

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Neil

Your apology is accepted my friend

You're welcome (he posted, knowing his insults had been happily accepted as an apology.)

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by g jones

You amaze me andrew with your spin. Labour councillors vote for £750 for planning. That is not lining your pockets. Tories votes for £5000-£20000 increases on one vote and milk other allowances. That is lining your pocket.

Yes you did vote for it. Your party believes in high council expenses and you voted for that. As PB says we won the election people voted for our policies not yours. So your leader attributes responsibility to you andrew as well.

Ps this borough can be a much better. We need more democracy that's all.

Graham, your unbelievable. Labour ruined the council financially last time they were let loose. Labour have voted for increased council taxes, much higher than the Conservatives ones, 8 out of 10 times. You complain about how our council tax has gone up exponentially, yet when you look at the facts, its gone up 45%, where as the rest of the country has seen on average 100%. You take that 45%, and just think, what that figure would be if those 8 out of 10 times Labour would have increased council tax further if they were in power.

You introduce complex budgets, the empty house tax you mentioned earlier, to a vote at council, without informing councillors so they can look over it. You expect them to make a decision there and then, otherwise you'll rage on about how the Conservatives voted against it. Back of the fag packet politics and budgets.

You bang on about our council being the most expensive in the country, you've had it explained to you time and time again that it isn't, and how the paper came to the conclusion it did, but you continue to drill at it because it makes the Tories sound bad. To be frank, Im sure you understand the figures by now, and you're just being dishonest to keep saying its the most expensive.

We have democracy, your party just didn't win. Why don't you work with the controlling party for the betterment of the borough, instead of trying to trip the Conservatives up for your own electoral advantage. If you can't do that because of your hatred of Britcliffe, and Conservatives, then I have no idea why you're involved in politics.

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by lancsdave

Will that be to pay for the council offices to be open when they should be between Christmas & New Year ?

I know it's bad form to reply to your own post but just spotted this on the council website;

At last weeks Council meeting, Council Leader, Cllr Peter Britcliffe, paid tribute to all Council staff who had worked over the Christmas period.
Speaking at the meeting Cllr Britcliffe said, "This is the first opportunity I've had to show my appreciation to fellow Councillors.
I would like to pay tribute to all the Council staff who worked over the Christmas period and through the recent periods of particularly cold weather to provide an excellent service in Hyndburn."
Cllr Britcliffe asked that a letter be sent to all Service Managers to convey his message of thanks on behalf of all Councillors

Does anyone want to tell him half of them were skiving

[garinda]

Originally Posted by lancsdave

I know it's bad form to reply to your own post but just spotted this on the council website;



Does anyone want to tell him half of them were skiving

I wonder how much his 'letters of thanks' cost, and if they were recycled, after his missive had been passed on?

[claytonender]

Originally Posted by andrewb

You introduce complex budgets, the empty house tax you mentioned earlier, to a vote at council, without informing councillors so they can look over it. You expect them to make a decision there and then, otherwise you'll rage on about how the Conservatives voted against it. Back of the fag packet politics and budgets.

.

Andrew where you at the December Council meeting? Your 'esteemed' Leader declared he could not go through the figures, but he had a copy of the figures, fully costed out in front of him, but choose (as usual) 'to speak in Press headlines'.

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by claytonender

Andrew where you at the December Council meeting? Your 'esteemed' Leader declared he could not go through the figures, but he had a copy of the figures, fully costed out in front of him, but choose (as usual) 'to speak in Press headlines'.

Yes I was there, and in my hands were all the documents along with the agenda. This is what is given to councillors I presume too. Was there any hint or mention of this back of the fag packet proposal on the agenda or attached documents? No.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by claytonender

he had a copy of the figures, fully costed out in front of him, but choose (as usual) 'to speak in Press headlines'.

Did everyone present who could vote have those figures in plenty of time before the meeting so they had time to read and understand what they were voting on?

[katex]

Originally Posted by garinda

Well it can happen to the best of you.

The Editor accuses you of being wrong, in reponse to your letter accusing the paper of not saying the recent councillor's allowances were a maximum level, when they quite clearly did state the fact, as the Editor points out very succinctly in this weekend's Observer.

I nearly choked on my bun, because of the laugh it produced whilst I was eating it.

Unfortunately, Jaysay made the mistake of having a go at the Observer here for not stating the facts, when they did actually quote Cllr. Britcliffe as spending £71 on accommodation at his last visit to London.

Think that he was trying to push the fact that this was only a recommended ceiling as other people (like yourself) would think this would be what they would always spend. Just came out a bit wrong...

Very, very few people make anything on expenses as always need receipts to obtain full payment. I used to forget the odd things like cups of coffee, tips, pay as enter car parks, etc., always lost out. Have lost bigger receipts too .. stupid me ..

Like you, not supporting any particular party; just what's fair. e.g. Graham Jones should accept the allowance on the Planning Committee, as get the impression it is something he truly cares about.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by katex

Unfortunately, Jaysay made the mistake of having a go at the Observer here for not stating the facts, when they did actually quote Cllr. Britcliffe as spending £71 on accommodation at his last visit to London.

Think that he was trying to push the fact that this was only a recommended ceiling as other people (like yourself) would think this would be what they would always spend. Just came out a bit wrong...

Very, very few people make anything on expenses as always need receipts to obtain full payment. I used to forget the odd things like cups of coffee, tips, pay as enter car parks, etc., always lost out. Have lost bigger receipts too .. stupid me ..

Like you, not supporting any particular party; just what's fair. e.g. Graham Jones should accept the allowance on the Planning Committee, as get the impression it is something he truly cares about.

I've been quite aware from the begining that the increase in expense allowances are an upper limit.

I've said at least twice in this thread that a wise council, at this critical financial time, would spend as little as possible of that allowance, and a foolish council wouldn't.

It was also pointed out earlier in the thread our council chose not to follow all the recommendations of the independent body, which for accommodation included a London weighting, and was substantially more than the previous allowance.

They chose to ignore it, and voted for the allowance to be much more than was recommended by the independent body.

The issue is about principles...and some people don't have 'em.

[katex]

Keep promising myself will have the last word on this .. but Hey, I'm a woman.

You digressed a little there Garinda.

Have agreed myself in a past post that the limit of the meal was upped from the recommendation .. but still think is reasonable @ £25.

Actually, Graham Jones quoted the allowance for Planning as £750, and was only £742 ...

[garinda]

Originally Posted by katex

Keep promising myself will have the last word on this .. but Hey, I'm a woman.

You digressed a little there Garinda.

Have agreed myself in a past post that the limit of the meal was upped from the recommendation .. but still think is reasonable @ £25.

Actually, Graham Jones quoted the allowance for Planning as £750, and was only £742 ...

Just so we're clear, some of our councillors didn't fully follow the recommendations of the independent body.

They voted to raise the limit even higher than was suggested.

[garinda]

...and thanks to insider information from Jaysay, we now know exactly how much Cllr. Britcliffe actually needed to spend in London to feed his little face.

A figure that came in under the allowance suggested by the independent body, so why was it deemed necessary to hike the limit up even higher?

[Neil]

Originally Posted by katex

Unfortunately, Jaysay made the mistake of having a go at the Observer here for not stating the facts, when they did

The way it was worded was a little misleading.

Originally Posted by katex

Very, very few people make anything on expenses

No comment

[jaysay]

I actually think that it would be wrong for any councillor being out of pocket when attending to council business, be it staying in an hotel or claiming money for having to miss work, if you are in full time employment you cannot expect the boss to pay you when your not there. If councillors were out of pocket going their duties the only people we would get as councillors would be people on long term sick or retired people, which to my mind would be very counter productive. When I first got involved in politics 40 odd years ago, all meetings were held at night, well they were in Ossy, because I attended regularly, and councillors were NOT paid for their attendance. Okay its a different kettle of fish today, but I've always been of the opinion that we should have fewer councillors but make them full time, then we may attract more people into local government,which would be great for the Borough overall.