Cutting injury added to insult over allowances

This week sees Kent County Council leader Paul Carter warning that frontline services could be cut as the council continues to balance the books. Mr Carter’s comments come just months after he and his colleagues decided to vote in favour of an astronomical 15% rise in their own allowances.

Councillors ignored recommendations of an independent panel which proposed an increase of 1.5%.

While July saw councillors satisfy their monetary needs, KCC has now told the taxpayers the services they are paying for could be axed.

Council tax was increased by 4% and £300,000 of bonuses were awarded to staff over the course of 2015-16.

The public have a right to feel short-changed by an authority that seemingly looks after itself before helping delivering an efficient service.

While the majority of people understand the struggles of councils and cuts to funding from central government, it is incomprehensible that KCC can award pay-out rises and later warn of service cuts.

It was in February that the council approved a 4% tax increase and states on its website it still has to identify £76.7m of savings.

At what stage did it seem logical to councillors to inflate their own allowances?

Perhaps councillors could follow in the footsteps of colleague Paul Cooper, who was elected in May, and turned down the opportunity to be issued with an iPad and phone.

Mr Cooper suggested KCC was wasting money on luxury technology while voters were struggling with their cost of living.