BURNLEY's Council leader will not be accepting a huge rise in his allowances despite an independent panel's recommendation.

The panel had recommended Coun Stuart Caddy's pay be increased from £2,400 per annum to £8,000 per annum and the basic allowance of £1,200 should be increased to £2,000. At full Burnley Council Coun Peter Kenyon, executive member for best value and resources, said: "We shall not be imposing the exact level of allowances and indicated within the report because of the council's very difficult budget.

"At the moment what we will be proposing is to scale the proposals of the report in accordance with estimates of a 13 per cent increase on the current level of allowances rather than the 66 per cent the panel feels is justified."

Coun Caddy said: "Hopefully we may be able to achieve the recommendations, but we may never be able to do so."