Council staff split over pay rise (From Western Telegraph)

Council staff split over pay rise

An Independent County Councillor has left the group and is reconsidering his position on the council amid the storm over councillors pay increases.

A vote to stop the pay rises failed by 41 votes to ten, as councillors rubber stamped the proposals at a meeting of the full council on Thursday. Speaking on Monday, Councillor Phil Llewellyn said he had thought of nothing but his position on the council all weekend.

He said: As far as my future on the council is concerned, I am still considering it very carefully. But if I do decide to stay, I will no longer be a part of the Independent Group. My position there has become untenable.

The former leader of the now disbanded Conservative Group on the council says he felt he had more influence from outside the ruling Independent Group than within it.

It has become pretty obvious in the six months I have spent there that the Independents listen to me less now than when I was outside the group. I am a lone voice, he said.

He said he would speak to his constituents and reconsider his position on the council in the next week.

Councillor Llewellyn had warned the meeting on Thursday that he would reconsider his position on the authority if the payments went ahead.

He said: I do not wish to be part of any authority that wishes to reward itself with 80% pay increases. We certainly do have problems in attracting people of the right calibre - a look around this chamber will tell you that.

However, I do feel that whilst we should be looking at encouraging this, the levels of remuneration are unacceptably excessive.

It is a pity the passenger train cannot get to Pembrokeshire as quickly as the gravy train.

He said the moves were premature as people of the right calibre could not put themselves forward until the next election in two years time. The cost of the increases in those two years is just under £1 million. Councillor John Cole also told the meeting that the people of Pembrokeshire were aghast at the rises. He argued for a pay rise in line with what the council would be likely to give its workers this year - 3.5%. But the majority of councillors backed the rises in a recorded vote.

Councillor Steve Watkins argued: I have had to examine this pay rise in the light of my own conscience. And when you put the hours I work against the minimum wage, it is nowhere near it.