COUNCILLORS have had an increase of more than 18 pc in their "pay" for performing their duties.

A total of £358,000 was paid out in allowances for 1998-99, compared with £301,000 for the previous 12 months. This was an 11 pc increase on 1996-97, when the figure was £270,741.

The leader of Bolton Council Cllr Bob Howarth topped the list published today.

His total payment for 1998-99 was £20,571 - the bulk of this is made up of a £13,449 special responsibility allowance. Last year, his total allowances were £17,612.

The next highest amount went to Cllr Jack Foster, planning and environment committee chairman and Labour group chief whip with a total of £15,765. Last year, his allowances totalled £14,997.

The council has published details of payments made to each of its 60 councillors under its members' allowances scheme in the period to March 31, 1999. The average payment is less than £6,000 per councillor.

But those who have "special responsbilities" receive extra payments. These are for the various committee chairmen and the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition groups.

The council's members' allowances scheme was changed part way through the year, following a review, when the meetings attendance allowance was scrapped in favour of a more realistic basic allowance paid equally to all councillors.

In future, all councillors will be paid a basic allowance of £4,800 a year, but there will be no attendance allowance. There will still be special responsibility payments. Mr Des Grogan, assistant director of central services, explained that the increase was large because of the change over to the new system.

He said: "The council, in following the Government's modernisation agenda, is determined to scrap the payment of attendance allowances which encouraged meetings for meetings sake.

"The result of this was an increase of basic allowances which take the overall expenditure on members' allowances up.

"However, Bolton is below average is relation to other local authorities."

A council spokesman added: "Councillors do far more than merely attend meetings. The scrapping of the attendance allowance and the introduction of a more realistic basic allowance payment is much fairer overall because it recognises the work which councillors do in their local communities.

"Nevertheless, the payments made under the scheme undoubtedly still greatly under-value the work done for the borough by Bolton MBC councillors.

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

The figures can be inspected at the Chief Executive's Central Services' Reception on the first floor of Bolton Town Hall during normal office hours.

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