Liberal Democrats are claiming victory in a battle over the system adopted by Merseytravel for paying "special responsibility allowances".
According to the Lib/Dems reform of councillor pay on Merseytravel authority, following an independent review, will save local Council Tax payers £100,000 a year.
Councillors on Merseytravel decided not to aware themseves a pay increase and agreed to accept the recommendations of an independent review axing many of the allowances previously paid to councillors for chairing committees.
The rejection of the proposed pay increase, and the axing of 25 allowances - all but 2 of which were paid to Labour councillors - is likely to save Merseytravel £100,000 a year.
The Lib/Dems say that the changes mean that Merseytravel's Labour Chairman Mark Dowd has seen his town hall "pay" reduced from £63,000 per annum(£9,000 as a Sefton Councillor, plus several allowances from Merseytravel totalling £54,000) to £39,000 a year.
Liberal Democrat Merseytravel Leader Andrew Makinson said: “This is a massive victory for Merseyside Council Tax payers, and for the Liberal Democrats who have long campaigned for reform, having dubbed the Transport Authority as 'Labour’s Gravy Train'.
“We always believed that the level of allowances that Labour Councillors were paying themselves was impossible to justify, and the independent review has proved that the Liberal Democrats were right all along.”
On the 27th June 2011, Labour Councillors voted against Liberal Democrat calls for an independent review of allowances, and an end to the practice of claiming multiple allowances. However a widespread public backlash forced them to make a dramatic U-turn just a few weeks later.
Merseytravel’s bill for Councillor allowances previously totalled £1/4 Million. All Councillors receive a “basic allowance” of £5,500, but there were also 35 “Special Responsibility Allowances” paid to councillors. There are just 18 members on the Authority, drawn from the five Merseyside Councils.
Meanwhile there was good news for users of the Mersey Tunnels.
Councillors on the Merseytravel authority decided to peg the cost of tolls for another year, leaving the cost for a car journey at £1.50p
Councillors had heard that the effects of inflation meant that the figure could be hiked-up to £1.70p, but it was decided that an increase would harm the region's fragile economic recovery.
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