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The council is considering whether to publish councillors' expenses claims on the internet.

10:48pm Thursday 16th July 2009 in


THE Council is considering whether to publish members' expenses on the internet in light of the scandal surrounding MPs expenses.

A report by the council's standards committee said the authority was weighing up the move because of the public's increased interest in ethics in public life.

Numerous politicians, including Leyton MP Harry Cohen, have been criticised for excessive expenses claims.

Mr Cohen has announced he will quit parliament because of the “intolerable stress” allegations have placed on his family.

Comments(6)

Touchwood says...
6:46am Fri 17 Jul 09

Probably be lots of black overprinting hiding the truth!!

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Techno2 says...
12:05pm Fri 17 Jul 09

Why do councillors get expenses anyway? They are supposed to have an allowance which covers all that.

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sensibility says...
1:49pm Fri 17 Jul 09

I think they should be published as a matter of course, its our money they are spending after all !!!

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Walthamster says...
11:52pm Fri 17 Jul 09

But techno2 is right, their expenses are meant to be covered by their massive allowances.

Waltham Forest councillors pay themselves anything from £10,000 to £50,000 a year. They're not full-time or even part-time employees. Those on the £10,000 minimum are only expected to spend a few hours a month in meetings, and there's no penalty if they don't even bother to do that.

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mdj says...
1:38pm Sat 18 Jul 09

These figures WERE findable on the web, then quietly vanished when the MP's hoo-ha erupted. If our Councillors were on the ball, instead of rubber-stamping whatever the officials spoon-feed them , one might not complain so much. What rankles is the knowledge that raising their allowances by about £240k was the first thing they did on taking office: so whenever a Councillor tells you there's no money for something, remember they put themselves first.
Community Council Chairs get £4000 pa for about five minutes work every three months, while the community Chair, some local volunteer who does 90% of the chairing, gets nothing.

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Touchwood says...
6:50pm Sat 18 Jul 09

sensibility wrote:
I think they should be published as a matter of course, its our money they are spending after all !!!
I'm not sure about
'spending'. More like
stealing!!

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