By political editor paul Francis

In the row over Kent county councillors deciding to give themselves a 15% pay hike, they are right about one thing; the council desperately needs to have among its members people who reflect the social demographics of the county.

Go to any meeting in the council chamber and you will be struck by the sight of a sea of largely men in grey suits of a certain age.

Oddly enough – or perhaps not so – the apparent concern of councillors that this is an issue that needs serious attention has not been raised by any of them over recent years.

Until, of course, it came to the decision to give themselves a 15% pay hike.

To listen to some members, you’d have got the impression they have been agonising over how to improve representation on the council and little else.

If this was such a pressing concern, to which the solution was to pay councillors more, there was a perfect opportunity to tackle it – and that was before the May election.

How strange that no one thought to consider raising it until after.