YOUR article (LET, December 11) about allowances claimed by members of Blackburn with Darwen Council might have given readers the impression that there has been a further increase in the scale of allowances since 1997. This is not case.

The Council's Member's Allowances Scheme was determined by an independent Commission in 1997 and introduced at the end of May that year. The Commission considered the responsibilities of councillors of the new unitary authority and the amount of time they put in representing local people, not just in meetings in the town hall, but in the community and dealing with people's problems.

Your story did not make it clear that 1998/99 was the first full year in which allowances have been claimed as recommended by the independent panel. If you take into account allowances claimed since the new system was introduced at the end of May 1997, the 1998/99 figures are broadly comparable.

A new system of Members' Allowances will need to be introduced next year when the Council's decision-making processes have been modernised in line with the Government's Local Government Bill. We are currently consulting the community on proposals for this new structure.

Another independent panel, comprising broad community and private sector interests, will come together in the New Year to advise on a new Members' Allowances Scheme.

PHILIP WATSON, Chief Executive, Blackburn with Darwen Council, Town Hall, Blackburn.

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