Shropshire Council challenged over allowances 'gravy train'

Councillor Duncan Kerr said that 39 members of the authority received such an allowance during 2015-2016 and described the top-ups as a "gravy train for a selected few".

The Green Party member said he would be writing to Shropshire's monitoring officer asking why the council is not complying with the views of its own Government on restricting the number of councillors who receive special allowances.

Councillor Kerr was speaking out as the latest allowances and expenses claimed at the unitary authority were expected to be released to the public.

He said: "The gravy train shows that some 39 councillors, nearly all in the Conservatives party, were given extra "special" allowances in addition to their basic allowance of £11,514.

"This is not only immoral, it may also, according to the Government, be illegal. In an open letter to another Tory-controlled council, Surrey, the Minister for Local Government made it clear that 'special allowances cease to be special if a majority of councillors receive them'.

"I have made it clear that I will only take my basic allowances and not claim a penny in subsistence or travelling."

When he was elected in March, Councillor Kerr used his maiden speech to question why why the authority's basic council allowance of £11,500 was higher than other councils such as Telford & Wrekin, where it starts at £7,800. He also called for a cut of 10 per cent in councillors' allowances.

Council leader Malcolm Pate said that the money councillors received was a pittance of the amount of money that private industry would pay for doing the same job.

He said cutting back on allowances would put off people, particularly the young, from standing for the council.