Last updated at 12:07, Thursday, 18 October 2012

WE address councillors' allowances, possible cuts to the number of councillors and how Copeland compares to Allerdale.

Q: How does Copeland Council’s budget compare to Allerdale’s?

A: By April next year, Copeland will have slashed almost £3 million from its budget since April 2010, and must save a further £2.6 million by the end of March 2015. Its budget at the end of the cuts will be £9.5 million.

Allerdale Council must save £3.5 million by the end of March 2015. It is on course to save £1.4 million of this by next April, and is currently planning its budget for 2013-15. The services it will cut to make these savings will be announced soon. Its total budget after the cuts will be around £13.1 million.

The budget that an authority is set by the government is dependent on population; Copeland’s is around 70,000 and Allerdale’s around 94,000.

Q: What do Copeland’s councillors receive in allowances?

A: A basic allowance of £3,063 is paid to all 51 councillors. This figure has been fixed since 2008. In addition, councillors receive allowances for having special responsibilities, including £6,178 each for the six members of the Executive, £4,975 for the leader of the opposition (David Moore) and £1,184 for his deputy (Alistair Norwood).

Council leader Elaine Woodburn is paid £25,534 (plus the basic) and although she is on the Executive, she does not receive the Executive allowance. Her council position is Coun Woodburn’s full-time job.

Chairing a panel (planning, scrutiny, audit committee) earns councillors an additional allowance, and councillors may claim for travel, food and childcare costs incurred while carrying out council duties.

Recommendations on councillors’ allowances are made by an independent remuneration panel, and then Copeland’s full council takes a decision as to whether to implement them.

Q: Can Copeland cut the number of councillors it has?

A: No. This number is set by the Boundary Commission and cannot be reviewed until 2015 (and not implemented until 2019).

Copeland has asked the Commission to review its numbers early, however it has been told that 2015 is the earliest this can happen.

Q: What does Copeland Council pay for its Catherine Street headquarters?

A: It pays £400,000 per year (including utilities) to occupy the Copeland Centre. The deal began in 2004 and the council is tied in until 2029 under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), with the building’s owners, London & Regional Properties.

Q: How much does Copeland pay towards Whitehaven Festival?

A: The council does not pay anything for the festival, but supports it by allowing the festival to use its land.

The majority of the cost of the festival (in this year’s case £400,000) is raised by the volunteer team from ticket sales, programmes and wristbands.

Q: Can the government offer to fund some of Copeland Council’s under-threat services if it agrees to host a radioactive waste dump?

A: Copeland Council’s Labour Group spokesman, said: “There are a number of strands to this but, in a word – no, because the two processes are completely unrelated.

“The cuts to the council budget are happening right now and we need a credible plan in place as to how we’ll make those savings. The consultation we’ve produced sets out how we can, almost, get to where we need to be by 2015. This is long before we can expect to start to feel the benefits of any community package for potentially hosting a repository.”

First published at 11:08, Thursday, 18 October 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk