Stop Barnet Councillor Pay Increases

On 2 March 2010, Barnet Councillors approved their allowances for 2010/11 as determined by an Independent Remuneration Panel. These allowances were to cost Barnet residents £1.4 million of their money each year.

Just four months later and only 10 weeks after the election, senior Councillors now say these allowances are inadequate and have voted through huge increases for the leader, deputy leader and cabinet members.

At a time when everyone is being asked to make sacrifices, when local authority workers pay is frozen and council services are being cut, it cannot be appropriate for Councillors to have pushed through this new set of allowances. They certainly did not tell us they would do this when they asked for your Vote in the local elections.

Are you happy with the behaviour of the Concillors in voting to increase their allowances?

Well don't try and discuss it publicly in a Residents Forum as councillors will not allow the matter to be debated; instead they suggest that the matter be taken up with your local councillors. HOW ? Wasn't the purpose of the Residents Forum to provide an opportunity to scrutinise the activities of our Councillors and judge the integrity of their actions?

An alternative is to petition the Councillors and ask them to rescind their decision and return to the level of allowances set on the Second of March. The petition is electronic and can be found at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/barnetcouncilpayrises/