Cost-cutting fire chiefs to double their allowances

Dec 10 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

PLANS to more than double the allowances paid to councillors on Merseyside’s fire authority have been branded “obscene”.

The proposal comes just days after the authority said it had been given the “lowest grant allocation of any fire and rescue authority in the country”.

A report to the fire authority’s standards committee this week recommends increasing the payment to councillors from £7,595 to £16,533.

The chairman, Knowsley Labour councillor Tony Newman, would see his allowance increase from £15,186 to £33,066, with others holding positions of special responsibility also seeing massive rises if the proposals is approved.

Merseyside Fire Brigades Union secretary, Les Skarratts, said the suggested increases were “crass and insensitive” and added: “It’s an absurd mentality trying to push this through at a troubling time for the fire service.”

Mr Skarratts said: “My members and the union find this appalling. We have had such a low settlement from the Government.

“I would call on the authority to immediately reject these proposals.”

Last night, Liberal Democrat member Jack Colbert said the increases, which would cost the authority an extra £247,000, were “absolutely unbelievable”.

He said: “We get a 1% increase in our grant from Government, and told we have to save £2m, and then they come up with this.

“I question the mentality of those who put this forward. I could not possibly support this.”

In recent years, the allowance has been increased in line with firefighters’ pay rises and Cllr Colbert said he was angry because he believed members of his party had been kept in the dark about the proposals.

And fellow Liberal Democrat member of the authority, Cllr Steve Niblock, said he also could not support the rise.

He said: “There is no way I could support this hike in allowances because I would not be able to look a firefighter in the eye, knowing he or she is saving lives daily and only received 2% when our allowance is more than doubled.”

Chairman of the fire authority, Cllr Tony Newman, said he had not received his copy of the report and could not comment in detail about the proposals.

But he said he expected members of the authority would “take into consideration” the need for the Merseyside Fire and Rescue service to save money when deciding whether to accept the increases in allowances.

He said the review of allowances must be carried out every four years and this was the result of that review, along with a series of recommendations ranging from taking the full increase, phasing it in, taking smaller rise or none at all.

He said the standards committee will look at it before a final decision by the full authority.

Cllr Newman said: “Four years ago, when we had the last review, we reduced it from the recommended £9,000 to £6,000, and it has increased since then in line with firefighters’ pay.”

OPINION: PAGE 10

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