Cut the number of councillors

11 March 2013

Cut the number of councillors

St Helens Green Party is calling for belt-tightening at the town hall before any more community facilities and services are scrapped.

The Green Party estimates the current cost of senior management at St Helens Council – politicians and officers combined – at around £1million per year and says that cuts must start closer to home.

St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council has 48 councillors: three for each of the borough’s 16 wards. In the financial year 2011/12, total allowances claimed by them exceeded £550,000.

The council leader received £40,000, the deputy leader £25,000 and their six cabinet colleagues more than £22,000 each.

The most senior politicians in St Helens collectively receive allowances approaching £200,000 a year.

St Helens Council also has a chief executive, Carole Hudson, whose own salary exceeds £150,000 per year. St Helens Green Party understands that the total cost of senior management on the officer side is more than £½million.

Francis Williams of St Helens Green Party says:

“Government cuts are hitting communities across the country, but if we are to fight them effectively the council must be seen to have its own house in order.    

“When council staff and the rest of us are tightening our own belts, we have to ask: ‘Is this value for money?’ and ‘Could the money be better spent elsewhere?’ ”

A compulsory 10% levy on individual Labour Party councillors’ allowances means that the Labour Party itself indirectly receives more than £50,000 from local council tax payers.

St Helens Green Party is proposing:

• a review of senior management costs at St Helens Council, including political management costs;
• a review of the council’s three councillors per ward policy; and
• a review of the current election cycle, which sees borough-wide local elections in three out of every four years at an estimated cost of £100,000 per year.  

Francis Williams adds:

“We have an expenses and allowances system that allows political parties and their career politicians to profit at the expense of the rest of us.

“Undoubtedly there are some capable councilors who offer commitment and value for money. But the status quo cannot continue.”

Proposals to reduce the number of councillors in Wirral were defeated recently by a combined Labour and Conservative vote, while a Green Party proposal to reduce the number of councillors in Liverpool will be debated this week (13^th March).

Tweet

St Helens Green Party RSS Feed

Back to main page