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Friday, March 23, 2012
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RETURN OF THE MAC!
MYSTERY DEATH: Jeffrey Ault.
More tests on sudden death
CAT BACK HOME AFTER SIX YEARS: SEE PAGE 5
PAY RISE FOR COUNCILLORS?
BY ALEX CAMPBELL
alex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk
CITY councillors responsible for £24 million cuts and hundreds of redundancies have been told they can take a pay rise. A panel is recommending all 44 councillors should accept the rise of at least £1,000 this year, despite the council workers’ pay freeze. It would see the annual bill for members’ allowances increase by £67,750 to £747,000, just weeks after city-wide cuts and more than 300 redundancies were approved. Now the ruling Labour group will meet next week to decide whether to accept the independent panel’s recommendations. A final decision on the proposal will be made on Thursday night. The three-person
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Cost-cutting members offered between £1,000 and £4,000
panel’s recommendations would see: ■ Council leader Mohammed Pervez’s role receive an allowance of £48,000 – an increase of £4,000; ■ Deputy leader Paul Shotton’s role climb from £27,500 to £30,000; ■ All eight cabinet members receive £24,000, an extra £2,000; ■ Rank-and-file ward councillors receive £12,000, up from £11,000. Members appointed to chair scrutiny committees or the planning committee stand to receive £21,000, up from £19,250. Mr Pervez, left, said: “It is only right that an independent panel makes these recommendations and that they are not set by elected members.
“The Labour group will meet to decide whether to accept these recommendations as at the moment we have not discussed them either way.” The pay recommendations have been put forward by an independent remuneration panel made up of three noncouncil local taxpayers who have been doing the job since 2003. Ken Sproston, Bill Buckley and George Slater carried out interviews with councillors and held four private meetings before setting the recommendations. They also studied expenses paid by 15 similar councils and found the basic allowance is already above the average £10,338 and the leader’s role pays £5,751 higher than the average.
The role of councillor is technically an unpaid public service, but allowances, as well as additional travel expenses, reimburse them for the time they spend on council duties. Staffordshire County Council has agreed to freeze allowances, while Cheshire East Council is yet to decide. Allowances in Stoke-on-Trent have been frozen since 2010. Community groups today urged councillors to reject the pay offer. Terry Cope, chairman of Greenfields Residents’ Association, in Tunstall, said: “If they do take a pay rise then the level of contempt for councillors in this city will go through the roof.” Tom Simpson, secretary of Sandyford and Goldenhill Residents’ Association, said: “The rise does seem a bit high and doesn’t look very good. I think probably the councillors will recognise it’s too much and look at it again.”
FURTHER tests are to be carried out as police continue to investigate the unexplained death of a man at his home. Jeffrey Ault, aged 43, was found dead at the property in London Road, Newcastle, just after 9pm on February 23. A 68-year-old pensioner, who has not been named, was arrested in connection with the death and later bailed. Police inquiries are continuing and yesterday North Staffordshire Deputy Coroner Anthony Curzon said pathologists are now waiting for the results of toxicology tests. Mr Curzon said: “The deceased was found at his home. His parents were present. A Home Office postmortem has been carried out and at the present time it is inconclusive. “Some more tests are to be carried out and it has been agreed that there is no necessity for a second postmortem.”
Worker had sex with boy A CHILDREN’S home worker had sex with a 14-year-old boy in her care while she worked the night shift. Susan Bromley was found guilty of six charges of indecent assault following a trial. Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said she had betrayed a ‘position of considerable trust’ and jailed her for six years. See Page 2
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Should councillors reject the pay rise? Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk
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