Allowance cuts for Havering leader and cabinet
Leaders Cllr Tucker, left, Cllr Ramsey, Cllr Barret and Cllr Webb outside Havering Town Hall. - Credit: Archant
The leader of Havering Council and his cabinet will take a 12 per cent cut in allowances if approved at next week’s full council meeting.
The proposals were agreed at last night’s governance committee and are set to be rubber stamped on Wednesday.
Leader, Cllr Roger Ramsey, said: “In light of the on-going financial pressures, it is only right that we do our bit by taking a cut in allowances.”
The revisions come alongside changes to the overview & scrutiny committees – which scrutinise the decisions of the cabinet and advise fellow councillors on policy issues.
The council will approve the creation of a single board, which will oversee the work of sub-committees, a move that will “help avoid duplication” according to Cllr Ramsey.
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Residents’ Association (RA) leader Cllr Ray Morgon and deputy mayor Cllr Barbara Matthews, also RA, quizzed the administration about where the power will lie in the new set up.
Cllr Morgon said the lack of opposition members on overview and scrutiny committees had been his party’s “whole complaint for eight years”.
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When Cllr Matthews suggested the board would control the agendas of the sub-comittees, Cllr Melvin Wallace interjected.
“You’ve got it the wrong way round dear,” he said, to which she hit back, “don’t ‘dear’ me, it’s in the report!”
Cllr Ramsey smoothed things over by insisting there was no attempt to manipulate the numbers on the boards.
Former council leader and chair of the meeting, Cllr Michael White, quipped that he preferred the old system.
“I liked the system when I was in charge,” he said. “I just appointed them and they did as I asked.”
Chairs of sub-committees will take a reduction in their allowances and one will chair the board. There is no change in the allowances as a result of this change.
The board itself will include 16 cross-party councillors, reflecting the broad political set-up of the council.
Further announcements on the cabinet will be made on Wednesday.
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