Greens accused of U-turn on councillors’ allowances

The Brighton and Hove Greens have been accused of performing a U-turn on councillors’ pay structure after approving the plan to maintain the current level of allowances.

The accusation has been made by Labour group leader Gill Mitchell after councillors were asked to vote on Members Allowances in today’s full council meeting.

The decision to maintain the current level of allowances was unanimously approved, but the Labour group has highlighted the opposition to the pay structure from Green Party councillors in February when the scheme was described as ‘generous’.

Cllr Mitchell said: “Our view has always been that the current arrangements should stay in place pending changes to some of the council’s democratic structures such as Scrutiny and a possible return to a system of committees.

“It is rather telling that once in power, and receiving a large number of additional allowances, the Green Councillors have performed a U-turn on their own pay.”

In January, Cllr Kitcat, who is now cabinet member for finance, spoke of his disappointment at a report recommending that the existing scheme of allowances is kept for another year.

On his blog he asked if any other parties would ‘dare to challenge the status quo’ in supporting a Green amendment.

In response to the report, Cllr Kitcat, who abstained on the vote and insists his personal position hasn’t changed, said: “I shall be proposing a Green amendment to that, seeking to bring in the Panel’s recommended scheme which will be fairer, help us meet best practice and save £18k a year. Will any other parties dare to challenge the status quo and join us in supporting the amendment…? We shall see!”

Cllr Kitcat laid out more of his opposition to councillors allowances in February 2011.

The Regency councillor said: “”We should be paying no more than 50% of councillors an additional allowance, but currently 61% get more than the basic allowance.

“Back in March 2010 the Panel made excellent recommendations to resolve this situation. Unfortunately, neither Labour nor Tories were willing to give up their extra allowances and so voted against the Panel’s report.

“The Panel have done excellent work benchmarking our allowance system against other councils and best practice guidance. At this Tuesday’s Governance Committee I will again be asking that their recommendations be adopted.”

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Tags: Gill Mitchell, Jason Kitcat