"YES, I agree it's gone up a lot, but a tremendous amount of work goes into being on the council. It's up to others to judge whether we are worth it." These are the words of Council Leader Stanley Henig (pictured) who has voted to increase his 'special responsibility' allowance from £680 to £5,000 - making him one of the highest paid council leaders in the county. The proposed increase in allowances for all councillors, which were voted through at a meeting chaired by Cllr Henig on Thursday, will cost local tax payers an extra £36,000 a year.

The total allowance bill for Lancaster City Council's 60 councillors is now £145,000.

Defending the increase, Cllr Henig asked: "Is it right and fair that people should do this for nothing? I personally put in 20 to 25 hours a week at the council and some councillors have huge telephone costs.

FLAK

"The increase does sound like quite a sum but it compares very favourably to say the chairman of a health trust. Times have changed and I can't say to people that this should be a labour of love. Councillors work extremely hard and do the best they can."

He added: "It's embarrassing for members to set their own allowances but we had to vote on the report put before us."

Several councillors at the finance meeting spoke out about the allowance increases.

Labour group member, Cllr Trevor Tattersall, said: "It may have been the chief executive that drew up the figures but we're the ones who will take the flak. We became councillors because we thought we could do something for local people. If we want to get paid we can always leave and get a job."

Independent, Cllr Geoff Wilson, described the 635 per cent increase in the leader's allowance as "monstrous."

He said: "Local people will feel insulted when they read about this. It's a monstrous increase and, while I agree that it's probably fallen behind and needs reviewing, the public will rightly look on this with concern."

A leading light in Blackpool's policy committee commented: "Our leader's special responsibility allowance will probably be going up but we are a bigger operation as it is and we are about to undertake all work currently done by the county council. If we weren't taking on this extra work and responsibility we wouldn't stand a chance of getting Lancaster's figures passed."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.