Liberal Democrat City Councillors Call For Pay Freeze For Councillors

A pay freeze for Cambridge City Councillors is on the cards after Lib Dems stepped in to halt an increase in their allowances.

The move would save taxpayers £26,000 this year.

Cllr McGovern

Cambridge City Executive Councillor for Customer Services and Resources, Neil McGovern said: “It was agreed last year our allowance scheme should be carried over for a further year while allowing for an inflationary increase.

“But clearly a great deal has changed in the last year and this is the wrong time for councillors to take even an inflation linked pay rise. People are losing their jobs and struggling to make ends meet and we are looking for any savings that we can make to ease the burden on our taxpayers.”

The recommendation to allow the allowance scheme to carry over for 2012/13 was made by the council’s Civic Affairs Committee in March last year.

But Cllr McGovern will tell full council on February 23 that the inflationary increase should not be taken.