WILTSHIRE councillors have voted not to give themselves a rise in their allowances this year.

They did so despite an independent review panel recommending substantial increases.

A rise in the basic allowance, currently £9,875, was backed by 61 per cent of councillors who filled in a questionnaire for the panel.

Yet when it came to a vote at County Hall earlier today, the majority of the 98 members backed a move by council leader Jane Scott to keep it unchanged for the current financial year.

She pointed out that when the switch from a county to a unitary council for Wiltshire was proposed, the county promised allowances would stay the same.

She said the economic climate and the state of local government finances made it unthinkable to accept the rises in full immediately.

Mrs Scott, who works 60 hours a week and has political responsibility for an £850million budget and 9,000 employees, said: “I am very aware that our allowances are nowhere near equal to other top-tier authorities, but this is not the time when we should be upping them.”

The review panel had recommended a basic allowance of £12,167. The council voted to phase in a rise to this level over the next three years.

Mrs Scott, who receives a special responsibility allowance of £20,950 as well as her basic allowance, will see that rise to £25,168 plus the new basic over the same period.

Group leaders and some members who have extra responsibilities under the new unitary set-up will benefit immediately. Portfolio holders, who support cabinet members, will have special responsibility allowances backdated to June, as will the chairmen of committees and area boards. Portfolio holders will get another £4,717, and chairmen will get between £2,095 and £5,200 extra. All members will get an annual technology allowance of £250 backdated to June.

The panel also recommended the special allowances should be pensionable, but this was rejected.

Councillors agreed to urge the government and the Local Government Association to consider setting up a national scheme of allowances for councillors rather than leaving each authority to sort it out.

Several members supported cllr Richard, Clewer, who represents Salisbury St Paul’s, when he said that the current pay structure prevented younger people with families and full-time jobs from running for office, given that members put in an average of 20.5 hours a week.

Cllr Clewer said later: “To be awarding ourselves large pay increases right now would be at the least insensitive.

“But to pay less than £10,000 for a job which takes up over half your working week, at unpredictable hours, when you are expected to take major decisions and public criticism, is not enough to attract a broad group of people.

“We need to pay a much better wage, and not call it an allowance. To achieve that I think the decision should be taken out of politicians’ hands.”