SO WAS the proposal from local Liberal Democrats to cut councillors allowances by 30% over 3 years merely a pre-election publicity stunt or not?

It’s hard to say. I suppose we’ll have a better idea when we see their election leaflets dropping through our letter boxes in the next couple of months. I suspect they will say “we tried to set up a community fund to support local groups in these difficult financial times, but the nasty Conservative and Labour councillors wouldn’t support it.” As you might expect, the truth is slightly different. At the Full Council meeting many Conservative and Labour councillors, including myself, liked the idea of having a community fund that councillors could contribute to.

However, I was opposed to the way they wanted to set up this fund. I felt it was wrong to impose an allowance cut on all councillors, irrespective of their personal circumstances. There is already provision for councillors to take only a proportion of their allowance. Several years ago, as a relatively young councillor, I chose to take only half of my allowance after voting for a particularly large increase in council tax. But crucially, I made it clear that it was a personal and individual decision only because I was in the fortunate position to be able to afford to do so, but that I was not calling on any other councillors to do the same.

Some councillors rely on their allowances to get by. Imposing a cut on all councillors would simply be a step towards having more wealthy or retired councillors and fewer people who are young or self-employed.

For this reason I suggested that Councillor Taylor should change her proposal, and instead call for the creation of a community fund into which any councillor could voluntarily contribute whatever proportion of their allowance they felt they could afford. Interestingly she declined to do this. Echo readers may wish to ask themselves why, but I hope they will remember this letter in April if they receive an election leaflet in April from Councillor Taylor suggesting that the Liberal Democrats proposal for a community fund was not supported by other parties. In politician-speak this would be “being economical with the truth.”

Councillor Andy Blackwood

Westham West Ward WPBC

8 Marina Gardens,

Weymouth