JOHN BIGGS has shocked voters across Tower Hamlets – as one of his first acts after the election was to hand pay rises to councillors taking the top positions in his Administration.
John Biggs was declared Mayor after second preference votes were taken into account and 42 of his supporters were elected to the Council – but their manifesto had nothing about pay rises. It was not only the public who were shocked: the rises came as a surprise to many of the new Biggs Councillors too.
Labour Councillor John King spoke out at the Council meeting on 23rd May, appealing to fellow councillors not to put the pay rises through. While others were struggling with austerity and the Council was cutting back on services to the public, it was not the time for councillors to take a larger slice of the cake.
First on the scene was the Save Our Nurseries campaign, which brings together mums who have been fighting John Biggs’s attempts to save money by privatising the last three Council-run nurseries. “We are celebrating 100 years since the first time some women in the UK won the right to vote,” said a spokesperson for the campaign, “and John Biggs says he is proud of how many women in his party have been elected to the Council. What about mums in the community who are trying to find decent childcare? We don’t seem to matter.”
Next came a storm of criticism on social media from voters who felt betrayed, with comments centring on a feeling that the mayor did not care about local communities and that he had misled voters by keeping quiet about the rises during the election campaign.
Voters may well be justified in being taken by surprise. The Council had voted through a Scheme of Members Allowances on 21st March, just before the election. The new Scheme put to the Council on 23rd May retains the basic allowance paid to all councillors of £10,983 per year, but it over-turns many of the Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs) paid to front bench councillors which were agreed in March.
The main reason given for the changes is that the Council has just noticed that other boroughs pay their front bench councillors more. •Where Tower Hamlets was paying Cabinet Members around £14,000 (on top of the basic allowance), Hackney and Newham (which also have executive mayors) Southwark (which doesn’t) pay £34-35,000. No explanation was given of why Tower Hamlets should abandon the Lewisham model: this authority (which has an executive mayor) pays Cabinet members £15,298. •There is also an Independent Remuneration Panel, which recommended an SRA of £36-43,000 for Cabinet members – though it is not clear if this is for boroughs where there is an executive mayor. Cabinet Members in Tower Hamlets are now to receive £20,000 on top of their basic allowances, bringing their total allowance up to around £30,000 – without any stipulation that they are required to work a full-time week on their Cabinet duties.
The net impact on the budget is £70,000, which can be absorbed, says the Council. In other words, the increases will cost an extra £70,000 a year. It may be the only increase in Council spending we see in the coming year.
•Read more about it: John Biggs: investing in water, not children! Biggs accepts call to stand up to racism
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