Expenses claims nearing £1m per council 3

Fiona McEvoy Grassroots

According to an article in the Walsall Chronicle (23rd July) sent over by a WMTPA activist, Walsall councillors claimed £830,923 in expenses over the last year, making them the third biggest claimants in the Black Country and Staffordshire, beaten only by Staffordshire County Council whose elected members claimed £988,637, and Wolverhampton councillors who bagged a massive £1.05m - a huge £245 extra each on the previous year.

One Walsall councillor claimed £145 in taxi fares whilst attending a conference in London…ever heard of the tube?

Unfortunately it’s the usual story, with our elected representatives dipping into the pot to top up their allowances…

In the article Walsall Council's leader does some dubious mathematics and claims that even with these expenses Walsall Councillors are earning just £1.20! But hang on a second – doesn’t that depend on how many hours the particular councillor works and how much he/she has claimed? Or more to the point – since when was a councillor’s allowance or their expenses supposed to be a salary?? Isn’t public office supposed to be undertaken by individuals out of a sense of civic duty rather than financial gain?

“We don’t get paid anything for driving to meetings” he says, but who does? I don’t get paid for travelling to work either. Cllr Bird’s comments make even less sense in the context as we can see quite clearly that his fellow councillors have claimed for taxi fares, rail fares and mileages. They might not directly be getting paid for it, but they certainly don’t lose anything, so what is his point?

In the midst of enraging his electorate, it’s probably best not to try and implore them to pity him and his colleagues, especially in the midst of a recession and in view of a bruising 3.8% rise in council tax this year.

Fiona McEvoy

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Hardeep Singh

That expenses claim from Walsall councillors is simply refelective of the mindset in that part of the Midlands. It’s too much of an assumed entitlement rather than money actually earnt. To claim such expenses one must ask what exactly are these extremely busy councillors doing? I doubt they are burning the midnight oil in order to attract a new company into the region or how best they can form a true harmony between public and private sector suppliers and thus streamline the council’s function. I doubt that Walsall is still a monument to lost opportunity… When the UK really had to knuckle down and either sink or swim Walsall was littered with factories ready to supply the local city of Birmingham. However today as a potential logistics and distribution point sittin right on the M6 and acting more as a suburb of Birmingham it has failed to progress as it should have. I can’t see what these so called councillors are doing, ah yes the gravy train how silly of me ….
Nice Boy Nigel

These figures presumably refer to allowances that elected members receive. The term “expenses” is unhelpful and loaded in the current context. What is an expense?
If an elected member has to travel to London, can that reasonably be classed as an expense? A figure of £1m may seem large and make a good headline but, per elected member, the figures work out at very good value.
Of course, Ms Mcevoy, you could stand for election yourself and perform the role for free (your civic duty) and spend hour after hour of your life reading council papers, progressing complaints on behalf of residents, attending meetings ect etc….
Easier to spend your life ranting on a misleading, mean spirited, website though, isn’t it?
Hardeep Singh

I take it the councillors elsewhere that read through council papers and attend residents’ meetings are simply not claiming enough? Perhaps they are able to perform their role with less of a cost on the taxpayer. It’s like the dodgy plumber who comes around to your home and starts adding on all manner of extras that don’t need doing and passing it off as a job well done and how he’s done you a favour. The councillors with their “we’re doing it for you” speech need to realise so are many others and for less of the cost. You can’t self justify your expenses all the time it’s NOT your money.