LEADING Liberal Democrats are at loggerheads over proposals to increase allowances for members of Powys County Council’s incoming cabinet.
Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, and Radnorshire MP Roger Williams have both called on Powys County Councillors to reject a report which recommends a huge hike in allowances for cabinet members.
However, councillor Leslie Davies, leader of the Lib Dems in Powys County Council, insists he will support the motion and said that calls from his party colleagues ‘do not change my mind one iota’.
He said: “The allowances for an MP and an AM are set by an independent panel.
“County councillors are in the invidious position of having to agree and vote on their own allowances and that is an incredibly difficult thing to do without being open to accusations of all descriptions.
“Obviously with the change in the executive system Powys County Council now has to set a new allowances scheme.”
However both Brecon and Radnorshire’s Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Candidate Kirsty Williams and MP Roger Williams have expressed their firm opposition to the changes which may see cabinet members’ allowances rise by nearly £4,000 each. The full council will vote on the issue at the end of April.
Ms Williams said: “While I fully acknowledge that the change to a cabinet system at the council, which I fully support, will result in an increased workload for cabinet members, at a time when the council’s staff and all public sector workers are facing a pay freeze at best, increasing any members’ allowances at this time is inappropriate.
“It would be much better if any change is deferred until the start of a new county council after the local government elections in May 2012.”
Roger Williams said: “I very much hope that the council will amend this proposal at its meeting at the end of April. There will be a new council after May 2012 and until that time members’ allowances should in my view remain as they are now.”
Cllr Davies said his members would have a free vote on the matter and that he feels the increase is justified.
He said: “The change in the system would have been imposed on us next year. We could have delayed that decision but we have no way of balancing this other than putting the money into the Special Responsibility Allowances for the executive members. If we did not take it out of that budget the Welsh Assembly Government would be perfectly entitled to take it back.”
He added: “The workload that is currently shared by 15 members of the board remains the same for the 10 members in the new cabinet system.”