The former leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council who stepped down after his election to the Welsh Assembly has said he will not be taking the £13,000 councillor allowance.
Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle was elected as Assembly Member for the South Wales East region earlier this month but decided to remain a councillor representing the Penyrheol ward.
As a councillor he is entitled to a £13,000 allowance.
He said: “I will be earning a substantial amount of money as an Assembly Member and I don’t think it would be right to also take the basic allowance I’m entitled to as a councillor.
“A few individuals have tarnished the image of politics in recent years but my motivation has always been to serve the public to the best of my ability. I will continue to represent the voters of Penyrheol and Trecenydd as I have during my 36 years as a councillor.”
He announced earlier this month that he was standing down as Caerphilly County Borough Council leader following his election to the National Assembly.
Assembly Members receive an annual salary of £53,852 which has been frozen until the next elections in 2016.
Councillor Allan Pritchard was elected the new leader of the council at a special meeting on Tuesday.
Well done Lindsay. A very respectable move.
I applaud Lindsay's decision to waive his council wages on taking his assembly seat. Very few politicians would do this. For those that know Lindsay it is not a surprise, though. Lindsay has always been involved in politics for the best of reasons, his beliefs and a desire to help his community.
I still think he is wrong in continuing as a councillor, however. He will find it difficult to reconcile the two roles because of the conflict of interest. How can he deal with complaints about the local authority whilst still sitting as a councillor? Also I think he should stand aside to give someone else the chance to be elected to serve Penyrheol & Trecenydd.
Although I beleive Assembly members who are also councillors should not recieve their basic allowance, there is nothing in law to say that you can not claim it. I congratulate Lyndsay Whittle on coming to this decision. This is not a Party political argument and I think all people of different persuasions will welcome this.
althow i agree that Lindsay Whittle has dun the right thing in terning down the money, i whoud respect him a lot more if he wasent useing the fact as a publisaty stunt at the same time
@ Richard, While I think you are right, ideally he would step down. But lets not forget that comes with a price tag – he is up for reelection in 11 months now anyway, with the election timeframe a replacement wwould be in for just 10 months. Given that it takes time to get in the swing of things, Lindsay is probably the better person to serve the community to the end of his term.
I'd rather he stay for 11 months, than force a by-election and the associated costs.
Owen- The postion and points you make on this issue are quite correct. However, the real problem, if Lindsay were to reliquish his Council seat, would be that a by-election would be held, the Labour party would fight that election by throwing all thier resources at it, with no other elections going on at the same time it really would be a fight to remember, the fact is if Plaid failed to hold the seat, and an opposition candidate won it, it would throw the entire stewardship of the Caerphilly council into doubt, in fact, Labour would probably then be in a postion to do deals to take over the Council at least until next May.
This is the REAL reason why Plaid Cymru would not want an election at this time, and this is why one cannot be too critical of the position Lindsay is taking, Plaids position on this is quite understandable, but to justify it in any other way is not, nothing to do with, time frames and financial impositions. Finally, Owen, you can`t put a price on the democratic processes so that is NOT a consideration, although, and I dont want to be too critical of the CONDEM Government left to Tories I suppose we could save money by only having a general election every ten years or so, that would half the current costs.
Trevor Bond is spot on, THelast time there was a bye election in the ward lindsay holds on the Council Rosa POtteronly just scraped in. I have little doubt that the real reasonWhittle wil not stand down is the Nationalists are afraid of loosing the seat.
on yhe dunject of Whittles very handsome pay ments from the council why does he not donate them to charity ?
Gareth Wlliams