WALTHAM FOREST: Loakes' new allowance plan scrapped (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAM FOREST: Loakes' new allowance plan scrapped

4:53pm Tuesday 19th May 2009 in News By Carl Brown

Clyde Loakes is chasing a Commons seat

A PLAN to grant outgoing council leader Clyde Loakes a new allowance for chairing a non-council body has been withdrawn after opposition objections.

Cllr Loakes is standing aside as leader at Thursday's full council meeting, meaning he will lose his £40,989-a-year allowance for running the authority.

But an item on the agenda was to ask councillors to agree that Cllr Loakes will in future be paid for his role as chairman of the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) - a role he took up last summer.

And even though NLWA disposes of waste for seven London boroughs (Waltham Forest, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Camden, Barnet and Enfield), the whole of the £22,047 cost would have been met by Waltham Forest taxpayers.

The measure was dropped after the council's Conservative and Lib Dem groups raised objections.

Cllr Matt Davis, Conservative group leader, said Cllr Loakes hoped the measure would finance his campaign to win the parliamentary seat of Northampton South.

He said: "This is so wrong. Waltham Forest's hard-pressed taxpayers are being asked to assist Clyde."

Deputy council leader John Macklin said: "This just creates a bad impression, stepping down as council leader and picking up another public allowance. Politicians should not be doing these sorts of things these days.

"The other councillors on the NLWA have agreed it's a full-time job - but how is Clyde going to do it if he is campaigning in Northampton South?"

Cllr Adam Gladstone, speaking on behalf of the Labour group, said the proposal had been put forward by the NLWA and the Labour councillors had not even discussed it.

He said: "This should not have found its way on to the order paper.

"It will not go through to full council because, following a consultation with other groups, it was felt this would not be the sort of thing members would support."

Regarding the claim that the money was to finance Cllr Loakes' parlimentary election campaign, Cllr Gladstone pointed out that the plan received cross-party support from other boroughs' councillors sitting on the NLWA.

Moira Gibb, NLWA clerk, has advised the council that the work of the NLWA will alter, partly due to a major procurement of new recycling and waste facilities.

Because of increased workload, the NLWA chairman role now requires "daily attention" and "political leadership" involving a similar level of responsibility to a council cabinet member, she said.

Cllr Loakes will continue to receive a basic allowance of £10,248 a year as a backbench councillor.