There's always one
Is it possible to get a complete picture of how much public money is spent on local councillors in terms of pay, allowances and expenses?
Some of my colleagues have been researching this question for a forthcoming BBC Radio 4 documentary, The Political Club, about the creeping professionalisation and stealthy public funding of British party politics.
The programme's producer, Giles Edwards, put a freedom of information request to all the UK's local authorities to obtain this information for 2007/8. He has been sent the relevant data by 465 councils - which is all of them, apart from one.
Essex County Council is the exception. Initially it rejected the request on the grounds that the material is intended for future publication. However it is now 15 months after the end of the financial year in question. Essex still maintains that it can't comply, stating that its figures are so late because of serious problems with accounting software, which has meant having to re-do the whole exercise by hand,
If you want to know how much public money is collectively spent on the nation's councillors - apart from those in Essex - then listen in to The Political Club.
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I do not know why we complain about public spending in the UK - I spend a lot of time at our [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]Marbella Property and you would not believe the corruption tat is going on in Spain's local government. It really does make this look like the best place to luve in the world. I don't know, but for me at least the term 'count your blessings' rings in my ears ever time I read the news - sigh...
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flytofreedom
Having less corruption here doesn't make it ok, it's still corruption and the poor/weak/uneducated/brown coloured lose out and get blamed for society's ills whilst the greedy get richer. It needs to be stamped out at what ever level, just like apathy - sigh.....
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Public doesn't mean Public anymore. Like personal retirement plan means it is not personal and a company can gamble it away in any irresponsible manner they decide.
First of all, no one should have to request such records as they should be posted for all to see. Maybe next you can look at the relationship to business support of candidates and the selection for public contracts, probably much more money involved.
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I am a local councillor in Islington, north London, and am concerned that councillors have the power to set their own allowances. Islington, until recently, paid amongst the highest councillors' allowances in the country and I think this was done deliberately to put a lot of cash in the funds of the ruling political party.
BarryE
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Essex County Guide
Related categories: Norwich.
Return to Towns and Villages in the East of England
The county of ESSEX has been in existence for some 400,000 years....
with such a long history your request must be in the queue, be patient....they are still mulling over those building permits submitted by the Druids for stone monuments.
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It should be required by law for all public funded organisation to declare who gets paid for what and when.
Local councils have hundreds of overpaid and un-required councillors, they in turn allow local council officials to spend our money in many ways that do not benfit the local population. unelected QUANGOS also spend vast ammounts of money from the public purse without any financial control. Top officials in the NHS,or PCT, Education, Fire Service, Police Force, etc deliberatly hide huge salaries, and other benefits, perks, and payments to the chosen few, without any recourse to the general public.
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I'm a councillor in Westminster. It always annoys me that councillors actually have a legal obligation to decide the level of our own allowances, and that we can't hand it over to an independent body. However I hope that there is a recognition that being an effective councillor is very time-consuming. It might save money but it wouldn't improve democracy nor efficiency if councillors were all either retired or unemployed people.
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At least Councils disclose this information in the accounts and we can inspect their accounts. Also if we don't like what the cllrs do we can vote them out. But what of the BBC then Mr Rosenbaum we can't do this and whats more we can't vote you or the Trust out. The usual smears from the hypocrites at the Beeb which is funded by a poll tax and where we don't know what they all get paid. Also they have to justify tax increases unlike the BBC which gets an automatic increase despite near zero inflation. Also in local government there is a proper indepdendent audit - not so at the BBC which is not subject to NAO review but is audited bvy the ex employer of the CFO. Where's the accountability there then? The real scandal is the BBC not local government.
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Dear,Mr.Martin,
Your article on Essex councils slow action on administation as well as execution of their plans in U.K. is readable.
Sometimes,Software programmes are failed to operate.
Thats why,what we can do for better administratio,both-System and Manual operations will not hinder in any speed for policies implementation.
Please write more on from other regions of U.K.
Here, in India,Right to Information Act had started functioning.
Now,Public can apporach concerned departments for getting information for any particular issue,details on progress stages.
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