This is unbelievable. How can they justify this increase in the current economic climate?

This is inconsiderate and selfish actions by people who obviously think they are above their constituents.

I am very angry with these incumbents, but will be articulate enough not to write what I really think.

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Cmon folks , our councilors are well worth their pay and deserve such an increase.
O Oh, here come the wardens with my white jacket again, why are the buttons at the back.
Why shouldn’t we work hard to give it all away to people already under investigation for making false claims?
Come the revolution….

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The swines have got their snouts in the trough yet again !!!

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@ StJoe. All your recent posts are against the Public sector. Your blinkered view makes one believe that you think council workers can vote themselves a 25% rise as well. What a biggoted, selfcentred view you have of the world. Your deep seated anger should be with the councilors not the public sector workforce and before you reply ( as you always do) I am not a public sector worker.

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just after all the public sector were told that there was no pay rise for them this year,this is a disgrace!!!!!!!

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BOB Have you some how got me mixed up with someone else? I am not against the public sector. If you bothered to read alot of my posts you would realise i support the public sector mate. I am always on their side when the express and star prints derogatory remarks about them.
If you read between the lines of what i write ,althoughi still think you have me mixed up with someone else on here.If you are clever enough BOB you would be able to tell that i am a PUBLICSECTOR worker. The comment is on their side.!!!!!

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Thank you for your comment no.6.

I we therefore to assume that all councillors who disagreed with the 25% increase, will not be accepting the rise? Are we also to assume that the public gallery was cleared before this issue was discussed and agreed because the petitioner(s) are all cowards and were only to aware the of public reaction?

These councillors beggar belief and are obviously ignorant of the plight of those they represent. It is greed and cannot be justified.

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Outstanding! Don’t worry about the constituents who are struggling to get by! don’t worry about the fact that so many of our services are at best useless! Don’t worry about watching as peoples lives fall apart as it’s not your problem! Yet more evidence that politics is no longer about helping the people but helping your bank balance. Fingers crossed for a revolution!

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25% increase in allowances!!!!!!!!! when staff are trying to deliver more services with budget cuts all round and a pay offer of 1/2 % after last years 2.75 % settlement. No bonuses no incentives, working for Dudley council is interesting!!!

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Mr Burston.
As someone who has been personally screwed over by this Council, these pay rises cut deep.

How can people voting on their own pay rises? If everyone had this right, every company in the world would be bankrupt.

When we do see issues with the political system we are told to vote to put it right but as you said this was a cross party vote, so what are we supposed to do? As this is public money, is there a list of how the individual Councillors voted on this issue???

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Cllr Ray Burston – How on earth now do your fellow Councillors expect to diffuse any confrontation with Dudleys workforce regarding this years public sector pay negotiations?

Telling the lowest paid workers – who are considerably more valuable and visible to the public than yourself or any of your counterparts – authorities cannot afford more than a 0.5% or £100 per month increase when your awarding yourselves 25%!

Please!

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These councillors do this why our town Dudley is in dire straits. the word Gravy train comes to mind. time to get people who really care.

Friends of Dudley town centre

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Mat – the whole reason why this saga arose in the first place is because in 2006 a decision to index-link the rise in councillors’ allowances to the pay award for local authority staff was flunked. As a result, Dudley’s councillors have received no increase in allowances over the last three years (which, when inflation is accounted for, therefore means we have taken a ‘pay cut’ – something that Express & Star reports always conveniently omit to mention).

I was in favour of restoring that link for the obvious reason that, as you say, I don’t want to be in the invidious position of deciding my own pay rise. Linking it to what Dudley’s home helps and park wardens receive is a way of doing this that removes the politics from any increases.

With Monday’s vote this link has now been restored – at least until 2013, although (as mentioned) most councillors also voted to uprate their allowances this year to both make up for that three year ‘pay cut’ and bring them up nearer to the level paid by other West Midlands local authories – which, far from being their own idea, was actually a recommendation of an independent panel of local community, business and church leaders that was set up to look into the whole business of what a Dudley councillor is worth. With no direspect to time and hard work that the panel put into its deliberations, I felt I could not support an increase of that magnitude for the reasons I mentioned in my earlier comment.

Of course, whilst being an elected member is rightly regarded as public service there are even so significant costs attached to that service – most obviously the tangible costs of travel, phone calls, loss of earnings, and so on.

In addition, there are also intangible costs too that both the media and a critical public tend to overlook. I too have sometimes wondered where I could have been now had I devoted as much time to my career as I have to fighting for those things in which I believe.

Factor in the inevitable strains upon family life of being out at meetings four or five nights a week and I believe the problems councils have attracting candidates to elected office probably have more to do with the unwillingness of many people to sacrifice their position on the career ladder or to jeopardise their marriages than it does because our remuneration per se is not sufficient.

Let me make clear that I do not cast aspersions upon those of my fellow councillors who did vote for this rise. Whereas I work for a sympathetic employer with a flexi-time scheme, many of them face losing pay when they attend council business. In fact, I wonder how many of the contributors on this site would be prepared to sacrifice their careers and their relationships in order to fight for the things in which they believe. When you can walk the walk (ie: get up out of your armchairs, have your name added to the ballot paper and go out and campaign for election to public office), then you will have earned the right to talk the talk.

Finally, let us not forget that much of what my fellow councillors pocket in allowances – whether they voted for this rise or not – they never actually spend on themselves. Indeed, my Mayor’s Charity Fund was considerably the richer precisely because of the incredible, unfailing generosity of many of them towards all manner of good causes, both locally and nationally.

As to what I will do with my own increase, I shall content myself with quoting Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 6 verses 1-3.

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if any of these councillors had anything about them they would have thrown the rise out!
because the country is in a depression.
i ask the Qeastion to Councillor Burston what service cuts are planned for next year?
i guess the cuts wont be in his ward.

Friends of Dudley Town Centre

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What an absolute disgrace, And a certain councillor has the nerve to say they havent had a payrise for 3 years, Neither has mr average, infact quite a few of use have had to pay cuts just to try and keep ourselves in the job marker, Weve done the MP,s with there greed, now thets get the greedy councilors.

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Well they’ve proved what we’ve always known… they’re only in it for the money.

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Cllr Burstan, I admire your try to justify the 25% increase through a raft of reasons and excuses.

I have conducted a mini poll of 30 friends and collegues and all of them, 100%, agree that this rise cannot be justified.

I would also point out that if one wants to represent their constituents through political views and empowerment in a local authority, then one would expect to have to make sacrifices in other areas of their lives, but should it be rewarded in renumeration alone? After all, you chose to be a councillor, and it has its benefits as well as draw-backs. So I find it arrogant that you comment on “walking the walk”, are you better than anyone else?

I shall content myself with quoting to you and your colleagues Galations 6 verses 3 to 9.

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John @32

Where is your evidence that Dudley councillors awarded themselves a 20% increase last year? I think you must be confused with another bunch of councillors. As with a lot of comments here, it does help if you get your facts right.

Mr Smug @26

So what’s your point, pal?

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well “Not all crooks”…

The chap was saying that when inflation was taken into account that a 25% increase is justified… The RPI has decreased recently (meaning everyday items are cheaper in real terms) and therefore completely contradictory to his suggestion. Also, RPI has been falling, or has remained pretty constant, for a considerable amount of time and many analysts predict it will fall further over a sustained period… before finding its way back to the levels of 2007 by around 2011/12.

IT CERTAINLY WILL NOT SEE A MARKED INCREASE…

How anyone can justify this increase is beyond me.

Simply adding that “it brings us into line with others” is not a credible argument. Who’s to say that the “others” are right in the first place?!

But hey, who really cares. They could have added 50% and it’s still a small amount. These guys can do what they want.

I just feel for the poor sods who look at this and think “Shit, how am I going to pay my Council Tax this month?”

Maybe the councillor will be able to look those people in the eye at the next meeting (assuming they haven’t all been forced to leave by the police)

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Incidentally, the protestors in the public gallery were removed because their heckling was so rude and persistent that councillors were unable to make themselves heard during debate.

This occurred well before the item on councillors’ allowances was due to be discussed. Had they behaved themselves they could have stayed to hear the whole meeting out.

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If you disagree with the rise the councillors have given themselves, then:

a) write to your local MP
b) write to DC or GB to express your concerns
c) write to your local councillor and ask them to explain their reasons
d) make an official complaint about your councillor on the Dudley MBC website
e) in the next local election don’t vote for them

These are the options available to all readers, exercise your democratic right.

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The simple facts are that back in the day someone decided that if they started paying local councillors they would get a `better class of councillor’…How stupid was that? All you get is a class of person wanting to earn some extra cash. Before this decision, councillors did the job for the love of the community, indeed many `out of pocket’ because of it. Now its `how much is it worth to me’ before `how much can I achieve’. Lets not forget that the basic member allowance paid is (in most cases) a second income on top of a regular salary! I don’t believe cllr’s should be out of pocket for carrying out their duties but there’s a world of difference between covering expenses and being paid handsomely on top of their regular salary. Especially given that the workforce has been offered 0.05% on their only salary.

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absolutley disgusted with this tory controlled council selfish ways. Dudley is crumbling before their eyes and nothing is being done because we are told there is not enough money avaliable. Librarys,adult training centres,swimming baths and residental homes are also being closed yet they have the audacity to give themselves this payrise i dont know how they have got the nerve to show their face in public. Lets hope the public of Dudley remeber during elections and remove these uncaring greedy parasites from office

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Cllr Ray Burston… “Wrong. If politicians serve for only one term and never have to face the electorate again, there is no conceivable incentive for them to listen to anybody.”

As opposed to now, where they appear to have taken the public’s view into account… hence the news headlines and public anger!

We had a quick poll around our restaurant table last night, there were 12 of us, all classed as “professional people”. You probably know one or two of them… can you guess how much support there was for the rise?

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re; cllr Burston “If politicians serve for only one term and never have to face the electorate again, there is no conceivable incentive for them to listen to anybody.”
At what point are any of the elected members listening to the electorate?? We will have 3 swimming centres left in Dudley and your best argument is You cant find the money (you manage to fund your own increase) and Boo Haa Sandwell gets more funding than Dudley. You should ask the members from BH swimming club who VOLUNTEER their services about the strain on family life and meetings 4/5 days a week and the travel and loss of earning ect ect! Who do it not for themselves but for the children of Dudley to achieve their goals only to have it taken away from them because the Council refuse to fund a repair and maintainance programme!

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Cllr Ray Burston said: John – You suggest that “the only possible way forward… is every election whether Council or MP, is to vote the standing people out. Make sure there is new blood every time. That way they might start to think about what tax payers want, instead of themselves.”

Ummm wrong..I didn’t say that Cllr, read back on the comments and you’ll find that Mat in post 42 said that.

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Mat – No condescension intended. I’m merely making the point that to come on this site and say ‘something should be done’ is easy. To actually sit down when surrounded by competing demands for other things to be done and then try to work out how to do it is harder.

John – Apologies. My fault for scrolling the comments up and down a bit too fast.

Ian – Unfortunately, that question you will have to address to those councillors who DID vote for the increase.

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