Staff pay freeze after rise in councillors' allowances

Conservative councillor Carl Maynard, of Brede Valley ward, faced criticism from the Liberal Democrats, who implied relations with RDC staff could suffer as a result of the decision.

But at a Cabinet meeting on Monday, the decision was labelled as a necessary, if unfortunate, part of the inevitable belt-tightening facing many local authorities.

Leader of the Lib Dems Cllr Sue Prochak, of Salehurst ward, suggested the allowances increase, announced in February, had been a mistake. "I think it would have helped negotiations if we had said that we would have taken a freeze as well."

She added that none of her party colleagues had taken the increase, which amounts to roughly 163 for each of Rother's 38 councillors.

"Although it (the recommendation to increase members' allowances] was settled by an outside body," she said, "the staff pay reduction was also settled by an outside body, and we have gone against that with this zero per cent settlement."

Cllr Maynard said he was "disappointed" by the comments. "There need not be any friction between councillors and staff because of an increase in allowances.

"For Cllr Prochak to politicise this issue that amounts to roughly 180 per annum is pretty feeble. We value our staff and want to keep our good relationship with them."

Director of resources Malcolm Johnston said: "It was with some reluctance that we had to recommend a zero pay rise for this year. The view of the senior management team was that the time we are moving into will involve fairly serious reductions in our budget and it would be wrong to add to that any further."

Councillors from both parties praised RDC staff for their commitment.

Cllr Maynard repeated a pledge not to introduce compulsory redundancies before the local election next May.