By John Kaponi Editor-in-Chief

The London Daily News

The furore over the vote to increase the allowances paid to local councillors at the flag-ship Conservative led council in Barnet, has been dismissed by senior members of the administration, with Cllr Brian Coleman speaking to the London Daily News and said:

"The increase is cost neutral, and there will be no increase to the tax payer".

Barnet Council which has been branded a "blue-print" council by many in local politics seemingly has ignored the mood in the public arena over MPs expenses and cuts to local government expenditure and voted in a rise to the allowances paid to local councillors.  

Barnet council will see a reduction in the amount of money paid to each cabinet member with a £7,200 saving.

"The amount paid to local councillors are not significant amounts of money when you consider some councillors are spending 90 hours per week and dealing with multi-million pound budgets", Cllr Brian Coleman.

Local councillors in Barnet are paid £9,500 per annum with an increase to this under the "members allowance scheme" stipulating that:

"Allowances are payable to recognise the special responsibilities attached to certain positions to which councillors may be appointed. The allowances are graded in bands which are multiples of the basic allowance excluding the travel allowance.

"3.2 The bands, the multiples of the basic allowance which they represent, the positions concerned and the sums payable are set out in Schedule 1. During that period a councillor other than the Leader of the Council may receive more than one special responsibility allowance."

The motion passed by Barnet Council this week will mean there will be a cap on the amount of money each councillor is paid irrespective of how many positions they may hold.

A senior member of the Conservative party commented on the stance of Conservative Councillor Kate Salinger who abstained in the vote to increase the allowance of members despite the groups support for the motion, and said that she was "already a marginal figure and her actions have ostracised her entirely and she is now history".

Sources within the Conservative in Barnet have also confirmed that Cllr Kate Salinger has been contacted by Barnet's borough lawyers over her conduct in a previous incident, unrelated to this weeks vote.

The Conservative led Barnet council also voted a zero-rated increase in the level of Council Tax paid by each resident of the borough (photo of manifestor launch).