Members of North Northants Council have voted for a 10 per cent increase in their basic allowance. Each of the authority's 78 councillors will now receive £14,000 per year, and some special allowances will increase by a greater percentage.
This has not gone down well with the staff of this Conservative-run authority. An anonymous employee told the Northamptonshire Telegraph:
"I haven't had what I would call a decent payrise in years. I'm not unique in this of course, many private sector people haven't too. That alone should make it clear that we are in the same boat. So to see our political leaders even having a debate about how much more money they should be getting at a full council meeting was, frankly, a kick in the stomach.
"Since we all joined up on first 1 April 2021 (trust me, many officers wish it was an April Fools joke too!), people have been jumping ship. They've had enough of the lack of support, lack of opportunities and the arrogance of, in particular, the executive, who are choosing vanity projects to get their faces in the press, over ensuring the council is supporting its communities and staff."
North Northamptonshire is one of two unitary authorities set up to replace the old county council, which effectively went bankrupt in 2018.
The same meeting voted to increase North Northamptonshire's number of councillors from 78 to 99.
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