Sounds expensive...

News reaches me that Town Councillors might be going to vote themselves expenses or allowances.

Cllr Sanders (the new Mayor) has regularly complained about not getting reimbursed for all of the letters and phone calls she makes whilst cajoling the landlords down at Morley Bottoms. The previous Finance committees have always knocked it back however, on point of principle. The reason for this is that Parish Councillors are not allowed by law to claim expenses for anything undertaken within the Parish. (They can, however, claim for items outside the boundary, e.g. for travelling to a training day in Leeds). Councillors are at liberty to make phone calls from the Town Council Office, or take post there to be franked.

It is now possible, however, to get an independent renumeration panel to set allowable sums. This comes at a cost, of course. The cost of paying it to all the Councillors (regardless of participation) and the cost of administering the scheme. Already there are rumours of a new Admin Assistant as the Real Admin assistant is covering for the Town Clerk who is on long term sick leave.

The biggest cost will be in the pockets of those who pay Morley Town Council precept. It doesn't sound to me as though there is much cutting of cloth to suit the means, 2006/7 is already a deficit budget drawing on reserves.

I have a softcopy of the previous position of the Finance and General Purposes Committee on Councillor expenses:

• Morley Town Council commenced in May 2000. At that time, it was understood that elected members of town and parish councils are unpaid, as the bodies are the first tier of local government.

• Councillors could claim for mileage and subsistence expenses if performing an approved duty outside the council boundaries (conferences etc.) No allowances were paid for attendance at meetings, committees or any other approved duty within the town council area.

• New regulations came into force on 1st May 2003. These allow for a basic allowance to be paid to members of a town council. This allowance is separate from the travel and subsistence expenses referred to above.

• The basic allowance is calculated to cover the expenses which are associated with the basic duties of being a local councillor.

• The basic allowance is set by a parish remuneration panel. Such a body must be set up by the responsible body, in our case this would be Leeds City Council.
The panel could only be established if requested to do so by a town or parish council.

• The cost of setting up a remuneration panel would be £900 approx. This cost would be met by the councils requesting it (i.e. one council would pay the full cost, nine councils would pay £100 each etc.)

To date, and to the best of my knowledge, such a panel has not been requested by any of the local councils within the Leeds Metropolitan District.

• The new rules were published by the National Association of Local Councils as Legal Topic Note 24. These were considered by Morley Town Council’s Finance & General Purposes Committee at our meeting held on 13th November 2003.

• At that meeting it was proposed that the existing payments for travel and subsistence be maintained, and we would also ask that a dependent carers allowance be considered for members having caring responsibilities. It was agreed that this would be put forward to the Independent Remuneration Panel as part of a joint submission by the Yorkshire Local Council Association.

• We did not support the payment of a basic allowance to members of Morley Town Council.

• These resolutions were approved at the full meeting of Morley Town Council held on 17th December 2003.

• The regulations (The Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances)(England) 2003) do not make provision for the payment of personal expenses incurred by individual elected members.

• It must be emphasied that the allowances as detailed apply only to approved duties, i.e. activities that the Council has asked a councillor to undertake.

My position on this is simple. If you want an allowance to be a Councillor, stand for Leeds City Council. Morley Town Council does not have any real responsibility or authority and most of the money (which comes entirely from Morleians) goes on admin & double taxation. If MTC ever gets any truly devolved responsibilities (and the funding to go with it) then there may be a case. Otherwise One Million Pounds (and counting) is not good value for a talking shop and civic pride programme.

(You can see an example renumeration panel assessment here, .pdf file)

Letter of complaint

Nigel Bywater of Airedale Terrace grumbles in the paper this week about the lack of notice for the annual general meeting (I think he means the Town Meeting). The office advised him that it had been on the Notice Board for three days, all that they are required to do. He also grumbled that it hadn't been publicised on the email Forum (and perhaps doesn't realise that it has been deleted). He pointed out Leeds website areas about encouraging local participation.

He asks what the MBIs will do to put this right. I await next week's letters with interest.

A big name for Morley!

If you don't ask, you don't get...

Town Council rather quiet...

I'm having withdrawal symptoms. I don't get agendas through the letterbox any more. I don't really know who is on what committee. There is sod-all about it in the papers, apart from caped photo-ops. The website is moribund. The discussion list was killed off. The new notice board is bereft. I don't know what they are plotting. No newsletters for a while now.

Is nobody interested? Probably not. As someone said to me recently- "is so & so on the Town council, or the proper one?".

One million Pounds, and counting...

Obtiser letters

Robert Finnigan replies:

Actions speak for themselves (Journalist headline)

YOU have recently printed letters from BNP councillor Chris Beverley and former Independent councillor Stewart McArdle criticising the Morley Borough Independents. Both claim to avoid publicity yet are quick to use the newspapers to further their own self-promotion – thereby using the same process they condemn others for using.
The Morley Borough Independents will continue to work hard to deliver on the programme that got them elected and will not be detracted from this work by those who chose to bicker in the newspapers.

Finally, contrary to BNP Coun Beverley’s report last week, the ‘A’ Frame on Millbeck Approach is being partially financed by Morley Borough Independent Coun Terry Grayshon. We believe that in such cases actions speak much louder than words.

COUN ROBERT FINNIGAN

MORLEY BOROUGH INDEPENDENT

I think it succeeds in making Chris Beverley look stupid. It doesn't actually challenge any of Stewart's points though...

Ripples from Stewart Mc's letter last week

A couple of letters, but not eactly earth shattering.

The first is from Derek Bradley and I think his flowery prose obscures the message somewhat.

Stewart McArdle's valedictory letter encompassed many views which he has long held and, more importantly, has long applied.
Indeed Rudyard Kipling may have coined the phrase "true to his salt" for such people throughout the world, not just the Indian continent.
His is correct also in his forecast that being "a true independent" is to commit political suicide in Morley, think Slingsby, think Welham!
Would your readers, if not Stewart, accept that "a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet"?
The larger picture on Morley Town Council is that, yes, they all come under the same banner, but the various elected councillors have different issues introduced to them by our citizens which they must pursue if they are true to the promise they made to supporters during the run up to the last election.
Stewart infers that now we are congregated under the one party banner then the party will decide what to push and what to discard.
This must not be confused with a councillor independently pursuing a citizen's concerns, either direct to the relevant department of Leeds City Council or, by choice, within the committees of Morley Town Council.
This keeps the citizen informed and safe in the knowledge that will apply to future concerns also.
I have been following this simple axiom since council year 2000.
DEREK BRADLEY
MBI, Scatcherd Ward
MORLEY TOWN COUNCIL

Meanwhile, Chris Beverley of the BNP City Councillor responds (but not to follow up any of the allegations he made). A strange mixture of tongue in cheek parody and pot calling kettle blackism.

Stewart McArdle's letter in last week's Observer and Advertiser shed some well needed light on the inner workings of the Morley Borough Independents Party.
Mr McArdle spoke about the endless press releases and letters sent out by the MBIs in order to create the illusion that they are responsible for the work of others. A perfect example of this can be found in last week's paper with the article entitled 'New move to solve motorcycle problem.'
The implication is that the Morley Borough Independents have been responsible for these measures. As usual, however, that is not the case. For a start, the ginnel that is to benefit from the A-frame deterrent is on Millside Walk, not Millbeck Approach. The MBI's have not even checked their facts before trying to claim credit for other people's work.
I have been in touch with a number of local residents from this area over the past year regarding the continued problems with anti-social behaviour associated with this ginnel, which includes the issue of the illegal riding of motorbikes through it.
I have liaised with the local police and also youth workers who have targeted this area, and I have also been in touch with various council officers and departments with a view to the possibility of having the ginnel closed altogether (which a considerable number of local residents want) or at least to have the issue of illegal motorbike riding addressed through
such measures as those discussed above.
I was happy to recently find out that an 'A'-frame has been approved for this location, which should at least stop motorbikes being ridden through this ginnel, if not address the other related problems. Whilst I am happy with this result, I had not intended to send out a press release about this, as I believe that councillors should spend their time just getting on with their job and helping people with issues like this, and less time crowing about such achievements in the press.
Nevertheless, if people would prefer to see an MBI-style comedy press release from me regarding this issue, complete with a photo of me grinning and pointing at the newly-installed A-frame, please let me know and I will see what I can do. I might even invite the MBIs along for the photo-shoot!
COUN CHRIS BEVERLEY
British National Party
MORLEY SOUTH, LEEDS CITY COUNCIL

Meanwhile, Morleytoday.co.uk gives errors whilst morleyobserver.co.uk goes through (although the site is actually still widely based around morleytoday.co.uk URLs at present).

Perhaps the paper have wised up that "MorleyToday" was more realistically "MorleyLastWeek" and maybe a name change might be in the offing?

UPDATE: Morleytoday.co.uk working again- it just seems rather flaky at times.