Black Country and Staffordshire councillors run up £5m allowances bill
Councillors in the Black Country and Staffordshire received nearly £5 million in allowances and expenses during the last financial year, new figures have revealed.
Black Country councils each paid out sums nearing £1 million during 2014/15.
In Wolverhampton, councillors picked up a total of £928,231 in allowances and expenses.
In Dudley, the figure was £842,446 and in Sandwell it was £929,176. Councillors in Walsall received £847,812.
Stafford Borough Council's figure was much lower, with its members receiving £317,871. Staffordshire County Council paid out £931,221.
The Taxpayers Alliance called the findings 'shocking' and called on councillors to 'show restraint when it comes to their own taxpayer-funded allowances and ease the burden on hard-pressed families'.
But Wolverhampton council leader Roger Lawrence said: "Here in Wolverhampton we're bucking the trend. Far from raising councillors' allowances - we have frozen or reduced them.
"In 2013 we took a decision to turn down the recommendation of an independent panel to increase the basic allowance paid to councillors and it has been frozen ever since."
Sandwell Council's leader Darren Cooper, said: "We have made a conscious decision not to increase members' allowances during the six years I have been leader of the council.
"Members have made a significant contribution to the overall budget reductions that have been forced on Sandwell Council. Last year we agreed a reduction in the special responsibility allowance making a saving of £75,000.
"In addition we rejected a 2.2 per cent rise in payments saving the council around £31,000, making an overall saving of more than £100,000. This was done because we felt it was inappropriate to increase members' allowances in such difficult times for everybody."
Dudley Council's leader Pete Lowe said: "Members' allowances in Dudley are governed by recommendations made by an independent review panel and are used to cover a range of costs from correspondence to travel arrangements to meet the broad range of tasks they carry out in their communities.
"Our allowances are lower than most of our Black Country neighbours and we work hard to ensure we provide value for money for the people of the borough."
Mike Bird, leader of Walsall Council, defended councillors' right to receive allowances and expenses.
He said: "I would ask anyone to come along and shadow me for a week, or a month and see how hard we work every day.
"People think that if we were to reduce all councillors' allowances and expenses down to zero it would balance the budget, but that's just not the case.
"Being council leader is a 365 day a year, 24 hours a day job, and we don't do it for the money."
The new report follows the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal which exposed how MPs were misusing the expenses allocated to them to pay for second homes, extravagant lunches and other non-essential expenditure including claims for ornamental duck houses and moat-cleaning.
The figures come from the Taxpayers Alliance which reveals that £699 million has been paid out across the UK to local councillors over the last three years.
