Heywood Councillors Choose to Freeze Allowances

1.08.20pm GMT Thu 26th Feb 2009

Rochdale Borough Councillors have agreed to a freeze on their allowances. The increase in April was expected to be around 2%. Each Councillor is entitled to an increase which is set be the average income in the Borough.

The amendment was brought to Council by the Conservative Party and was unanimously supported on both sides of the chamber by the Liberal Democrats and Labour Party.

Heywood North Councillor Peter Rush said: "The freeze on Councillor's allowance will see a saving in our Borough of around £20,000 which will be put back into the budget. I was delighted to see that this proposal gained cross party support. During these harsh economic times, when many residents, families and businesses are struggling across the Borough I think it would have been immoral of us to be offering ourselves a pay rise. Hopefully this will give the message to the residents of our borough that we are taking this terrible economic climate seriously."