COUNCILLORS in Redbridge stand to gain pay rises of up to 300 per cent in the next year, taking some of them to nearly £50,000.

The yearly allowance for the leader is expected to jump from £33,800 to a whopping £51,200, earning him a cool £61,155 in total, and helping push up the total taxpayers' bill for councillors by as much as half a million pounds to around £1.5m.

Some councillors could see their pay for chairing committees treble - from £8,000 to £26,000, and members will vote on the increases themselves.

The move comes just months after a decision to cut the number of disabled and elderly people eligible for home help, slashing their social care budget by £800,000.

And the thought of a burgeoning wage pay bill for elected public servants has sparked outrage from pensioners who are already suffering under social care cuts.

Chris Wilson, 88, head of the Redbridge Pensioners' Action Association, said: "I'm disgusted. Care packages of the most needy in the community have already been reduced because of cuts. The old have got to suffer and they can get this extra money. More than 65 per cent of the cuts could go to them. If the councillors vote yes to this they haven't got a conscience."

Mother-of-one Lisa White, who started a volunteer-run childrens' playgroup in Woodford Green, said: "I'm livid. I live on Orchard Estate which is crumbling. The money should be spent on making sure we live in homes without mildew."

The increases have been proposed by London Councils, to which each local authority can choose to delegate their pay recommendations.

Each one of the council's 63 members receives a basic allowance of £9,657 which will stay largely the same. The huge increase will come from increasing money paid on top to the 43 councillors who are members of committees and receive a special responsibility allowance (SRA).

The figure of 43, including all but three of the ruling Conservative group, is way above the 32 recommended by the London Councils who have described any level over 37 as "wrong in principle".

The council's ten-member cabinet, the largest legally allowed, stands to gain some of the biggest rises with their allowances going from £16,231 to somewhere between £42,669 and £48,765.

The potential pay rises were discussed at Tuesday's resources and corporate performance scrutiny committee.

Councillor Ian Bond, a member of the committee, said: "What the committee agreed was that we would recommend reducing the number of members with special responsibilities and then think about increasing the payment for some members.

There is no suggestion that we are working towards the figures in the report."

Council leader Alan Weinburg said: "I cannot comment on anything going in front of the scrutiny committee. It's their job to make the necessary recommendation to the Cabinet."

Even if councils eventually decide to go ahead with the lower end of the recommendations, taxpayers still face paying an extra £250,000.