WE expect our letters' columns to be overflowing with comments about the amount of "pay" Bolton councillors receiving for performing their duties.

As our story tonight reveals a total of £358,000 was paid out in allowances for 1998-99 compared with £301,00 for the previous 12 months.

There may be surprise that the leader of Bolton Council received £20,571-more than many people's salaries. The next highest amount goes to Cllr Jack Foster, planning and environment committee chairman and Labour group chief whip, with a total of £15,765.

The question is are they, and the rest of the councillors, worth it?

The anonymous council spokesman thinks so.

"The payments made do not compensate completely for the many extra hours which councillors put in on behalf of the people in their wards," he/she states.

Maybe not. But the work of a councillor has always been regarded as a voluntary duty carried out in the spirit of public service.

That stated, we do not expect councillors to be out of pocket because of their council duties.

It is difficult to quantity the work they do. Perhaps Cllr Howarth is worth every penny of his "pay" because of the amount of business he helps to generate for the town.

Similarly Cllr Foster may deserve his allowances for the volume of work he does as planning and environment committee chairman.

But the combined allowances for all our councillors is a large amount for the town to bear.

We await our readers' reactions with interest.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.