ONCE again the Citizen is to be congratulated on its ability to bring to the public's notice a matter which certain politicians would prefer to keep out of the public domain, namely the obscene rises which the police authority members have 'forced' upon themselves, at a time when the Government has indicated a decrease in the amount of money they intend to provide for Lancashire Police Authority.

Of course, the PR section of the police authority will be 'sniffy' about it. I feel sure that both they and their masters would have preferred the 'lowest key' possible announcement, especially at this time when politicians in local government generally are bracing themselves to have to take extremely high percentage rises in their allowances -- even more meaningful when so many of them also have multiple roles on both district and county councils as well as the police authority.

Cllr Henig falls back on the age old excuse that some obscure independent committee has forced through the increases and they have to accept it -- rubbish! The Police Authority could have rejected or amended the proposals.

In fact, Cllr Henig, like many other multi-role councillors may well be facing what could be described as 'an embarrassment of riches' with increased payments due to her for her police and county council duties, which, remember, are carried out in addition to her very senior post (full time I believe) at the university.

Would it perhaps be too much to ask Cllr Henig to accept a challenge to reply to this letter and tell the chargepayers of Lancashire the exact amount of remuneration she will be entitled to from just the county council and police authority sources alone in the year 2002-2003.

This is written by one who pays the piper but doesn't like the tune!

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