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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Minister must reject communications allowance for local Councillors says Assembly Member
September 23, 2009 12:00 AM
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson, Peter Black, has called on Ministers to reject a recommendation from a Labour/Plaid Cymru working group to give Councillors public money to communicate with their voters.
The proposal has emerged from the report of the Councillor Commission Expert Panel for Wales which was set up by the Government to look at how to improve local councils. The panel has proved to be controversial because of the fact that it has so many nominees from Labour and Plaid Cymru but the Minister excluded opposition parties from its deliberations.
Amongst the proposals are that local authorities should make arrangements to support councillors to publish (as a minimum on the website) an annual report of their work both in their communities and within the council and that a communication allowance should be available to councillors which could be used to fund communication with their electorate.
Commenting on the proposals Mr. Black said: "The idea that scare public resources should be used to reinforce incumbency and provide individual propaganda on the taxpayer is unacceptable. I have opposed it for MPs, it does not happen in the Welsh Assembly and it should not be allowed at a local level either.
"I very much hope that when the Minister considers this report that he rejects this nonsense and seeks to build a consensus around the better proposals to improve the representative nature of Councillors rather than try to impose the whole package on us unamended."
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