Councillors who Snuggled-up to a Super Stipend

Editor Northern Voices:  ON Monday the 19 March 2018 the 

Rochdale Online website reported that in Rochdale the 

Councillor's allowances will 'top one million' pounds.

Helpfully, Carl Faulkner, the Independent candidate for

Spotland and Falinge, exposed how the Rochdale councillors

had shared out their generous stipend pay among themselves.

 Among the opposition, only the Lib Dem councillors 
Andy Kelly and Irene Davidson voted against the rises 
and refused the increase, meanwhile on the Labour 
side councillors Andy Bell, Malcolm Borriss, 
Chris Furlong and Billy Sheerin also refused the increase.
Of the 60 Rochdale councillors, according to Rochdale
Online, all the others including the Tories took the
extra State stipend either in part or in full.

Below Carl Faulkner gives his views on the way the Rochdale 
municipal establishment handled the issue of their own stipend:

NO MANDATE TO UP COUNCILLOR'S ALLOWANCES !
by Carl Faulkner

NOT a single councillor was press-ganged into becoming a councillor.  It is an entirely voluntary position.  Not a single councillor has ever stated that if elected, they will be wanting increased allowances.  

If the allowances were not sufficient, then they should have not stood or alternatively, stepped down – there would not have been any shortage of people willing to take their place.

The way in which the rise in allowances was brought about was indicative of the self-serving way in which councillors and senior council officers often act.  The public were given one week’s notice; the rise itself was timed to come into effect in a year that there were no elections.  

It was a cynical, deliberate act to exclude public opinion from the process.  But it was entirely consistent with the arrogant and underhanded way in which the public (and press) are deliberately excluded from major decisions of public concern.

But should we be surprised?   It is councillors who decide on the appointment of the Chief Executive.  It is the Chief Executive, at a time of his choosing,  who hand picks the panel who then recommended the extortionate rises.  The favour returned.

******

Electoral Fraud & the Doubting Thomas's at NV!

Hello Brian,

I have looked at the Milkstone and Deeplish result from 2015 and to be honest I don't agree with you. There are plenty of local wards up and down the UK which are so strong for one party that they frequently poll over three quarters of the total vote.

I would refer you to the work of Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, who are both professors of Politics at Plymouth University who have been compiling and analysing local election results for over 30 years. In their studies you will see that there are in fact wards in Britain where the winning party gets over 80 percent of the vote and in some cases over 90 percent.

Indeed, in our own borough I refer you to the result in West Middleton ward in 2012, where my comrade Lil Murphy was re-elected. She polled 82.2 percent of the vote in that election which is higher than the 77.7 percent in Milkstone and Deeplish just 3 short years later. Now I do know you were writing articles for Northern Voices back in 2012, so why did you not presume there was something wrong with that result?

In that same year my comrade Billy Sheerin won Castleton with 75.1 percent of the vote, may I ask why you didn't see fit to question that result?

In 2008, Councillor Ashley Dearnley held Wardle and West Littleborough for the Tories with 80.4 percent of the vote, yet you didn't cast aspersions on that result.

Indeed only last May in 2016 my comrade Liam O'Rourke won North Heywood with almost 72 percent of the votes cast, why do you not question that result?

So as you can see there are plenty of examples in this day and age of candidates polling well into the 70 and 80 percent zone, yet for some reason you choose to single out the good people of Milkstone and Deeplish ward. What is so different about Milkstone and Deeplish ward that for some reason you question the result there while you don't question the other examples I have provided you with?

Yours sincerely 

Neil Emmott