Last week, without fanfare, Newham council finally published the report on councillors’ expenses and allowances for 2012/13. As the year in question ended at the start of April and the report is dated May 2013, I’m not sure why it took so long to put it into the public domain.
The report shows that last year the 61 elected members of Council – the mayor and 60 ward councillors – trousered a total of £1,204,422 between them. But although all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others.
While all 60 ward councillors picked up £10,734 each in basic allowances, 31 of them got to top that up with ‘special responsibility allowances’ that totalled a whopping £479,353. The most equal animal of all, the mayor, received £81,029.
Average household income in Newham is around £27,000 a year. Thirteen members of the council received more than that in allowances last year. Public service can be so rewarding!
The top ten recipients of council tax cash last year were:
- R A WALES – £81,029
- L T HUDSON – £ 45,528
- I K CORBETT – £ 42,811
- R J CRAWFORD – £ 42,811
- A R BAIKIE – £ 41,776
- U DESAI – £ 41,776
- C MCAULEY – £ 41,776
- C W FURNESS – £ 41,028
- A KELLAWAY – £ 37,635
- E H SPARROWHAWK – £ 33,499
Nationally, the Labour party is rightly committed to getting more women into senior positions in politics. So it is worth noting that this list is entirely male. The only woman in Sir Robin’s senior team – his cabinet and ‘executive advisors’ – is Kay Scoresby and she is joint 12th on the money list. The next highest ranked woman is Forest Gate North’s Ellie Robinson. She chairs the council’s scrutiny commission and collected £23,197 last year – making her the 19th biggest earner.
Among the 20 most senior councillors, with responsibilities that attract the largest allowances, just two are women. When people talk about ‘jobs for the boys’ that is quite literally true in Newham.
forestgatedotnet 
And it is worth noting again that some 5% of these allowances are immediately paid into a Labour Party account by LBN so they can be used for organisation and campaigning for the next election. Whilst this practice is used by other political parties in other authorities, the money raised by Labour is Newham is phenomenal as the Council is entirely Labour and the Mayor can pretty much decide how many special responsibility allowances are given. There are far too many, some of which have no basis, and as has ben pointed out elsewhere, there is no description of some of the duties for which they are paid or independent managemen of whether those receiving them give value for money.
since labour has a womans list due to the sexism & misogynists in their party for gender balance will they now have a class list for class balance, or will it continue to be a party of professional, careerists, elitist, nepotistic , incestuous neoliberal toffs who are no different from the tories, battering the vulnerable and filling their own pockets ! VOTE LABOUR GET A TORY