Councillors in Walsall have narrowly voted down a recommendation to in-crease the allowances of their leaders.

An independent panel had proposed that the authority agree a rise for the leader of the council, his deputy and cabinet members, to take effect from April. The increases were outlined in a report that went before the full council meeting last night.

Councillor Mike Bird put forward a motion to maintain allowances at their current level and this was agreed on a vote of 28-27.

Labour councillors voted against the motion because they considered the discussion on allowances to be a missed opportunity whereby the system could be ref-ormed within the existing budget.

These councillors handed in a petition of names against increases in councillors’ allowances, which had been gathered at Bloxwich Market on Saturday.

Councillor Bird said: “I’m sorry that councillors had a cold afternoon in Bloxwich collecting signatures be-cause the Labour leader knew on Friday that this is the action we would take.

“It was a Labour government that said that councillors should have allowances, and it’s the law that says an independent panel should review them.”

The independent panel had recommended that the deputy leader’s allowance should be nearly doubled from £8,302 to £15,000.

The allowances of cabinet members were recommended to increase from £8,300 to £9,300, and allowances for the council leader would have increased by about £1,600 a year to £22,356.

Labour group leader Councillor Tim Oliver told Councillor Bird: “I’m very glad that you and your group have been forced in to a U-turn on this issue after your initial attempts to agree with the recommendation.”