LTC Extraordinary Meeting

Leigh On Sea News. LTC Extraordinary Meeting – AN Extraordinary Meeting of Leigh Town Council has been called by the Chairman, after three Motions were submitted to him from Councillors.

The Meeting will take place at 7.30 pm on Monday July 10 at Leigh Community Centre and is open for the public to attend.

Motion 1. relates to increasing Councillor allowances. Motion 2. relates to having an independent review of all staff and Motion 3. relates to reviewing Standing Orders (the Council’s rules) and all Council policy documents.

The Motion submitted regarding councillor allowances is to instruct the Town Clerk to institute a review of the current allowance and share costings based upon £500 per year per councillor. In 2013 Leigh Town Council resolved to set an annual allowance of £85 per councillor per year.

The Motions request the suspension of certain Standing Orders, enabling Councillors to by-pass the usual process of going through a committee or waiting for the next full Council meeting, which will take place on July 25.

The Extraordinary Meeting also means the Town Clerk will not have the opportunity to provide Guidance on the Motions in relation to issues such as clarity and law.

Labour’s Southend Councillor Coun Matt Dent, along with a number of others, responded to news of the Extraordinary Meeting in a shared Facebook post.

Coun Dent’s post said: “This is absolutely outrageous. The first thing the Conservative councillors on Leigh Town Council plan to do having taken control of the council is to put up their pay by almost 600%.”

The post went on to say: “Somewhat astonishingly, fresh from having won the majority of seats uncontested and still in the middle of a cost of living crisis, the Tory majority on Leigh Town Council are planning to raise town councillors’ allowances by almost 600%.

“Currently Leigh Town councillors are paid an allowance of £85 per year, which comes from the precept paid by Leigh residents in their council tax. The proposal from former deputy mayor of Southend Cllr Mark Flewitt seeks to increase that amount to an astonishing £500 per year.

“Now, I’m not a Leigh resident and I don’t represent any part of Leigh, but I’m flabbergasted that fresh from boasting that they’ve taken control of the previously apolitical Leigh Town Council the first act of the Conservatives is to line their pockets so blatantly. All of this whilst their residents continue to struggle under soaring bills and mortgage rates, courtesy of the Tory government in Westminster.

“For any Leigh residents who follow my page, the meeting where this is set to be debated and agreed will be at 19.30 on Monday 10 July 2023.”

The agenda can be found on the Leigh Town Council’s website.

Conservative Town Councillor, Coun Mark Flewitt, has defended the move, highlighting that that City Councillors, of which Coun Dent is one, have significantly greater expense allowances than Town Councillors. He said: “It’s rich for Matt, earning whatever he’s earning, £9,000 plus a year, to be going on at Town Councillors that at best would get, so far, £85 for a year.

“You couldn’t look after a hamster on £1.63 a week, you can’t get a single bus fare, even at two quid.”

Whilst Coun Flewitt acknowledged that traditionally Town Councillors have not claimed their £85.00 per year, he made the point that that maintaining such a low limit on allowable expenses for Town Councillors might exclude some residents from serving on the council, adding: “So, is Leigh Town Council just for those who can afford to be on it?”

He also said: “I find it quite rich that city councillors should criticise Town Councillors for saying let’s have a review by an independent review body.

“Now, accepted that we call them allowances still but that’s perhaps its old name, the right language would be expenses that are currently £1.63 pence a week. Not even a single bus fare, not even two first class postage stamps.

“That’s the proportionality that we need to look at here. We will be moving an amendment to the motion, to make it more explicitly clear that that’s what it is and that we are not seeking to action even £500, but it’s as a ceiling to £500, so that we are saying, we can’t justify earning more than that or being paid expenses more than that for a town council the size of Leigh Town Council.

“So, I really think it’s a storm in a teacup. It needs to go to an independent review body, and they may even say, we don’t think it justifies any more, or anything, but that should be concluded by the independent body and not by a figure that was set in 2013 at £85 per year.”

“I hope that puts it in proportion.”

As at the time of writing the Leigh On Sea News understands that all of the above is correct. However, this story has been developing quickly and things may change before the Leigh Town Council’s Extraordinary Meeting.

Read more.

Visit: https://leigh-on-sea.news

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leighonsea.news

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leighonsea.news

Contact us. Visit: https://leigh-on-sea.news/contact-us

Twitter: @leighonsea_news