A VOTE to increase councillor's expenses sparked cries of disgust from the public gallery at Accrington Town Hall on Tuesday, during a Cabinet meeting.

Labour members had tabled an amendment which would have scrapped an estimated £5,000 rise in the allowance for council leader, Councillor Peter Britcliffe but this was defeated.

His basic allowance has jumped from £17,032 to £19,842, but he is also allowed to claim allowances for more than one special responsibility, which has led to the extra £5,000 he can claim.

This equates to a whopping pay increase of around 20 per cent.

Other proposals included allowing members of the planning committee to claim an extra £703 because of the extra work and site visits they have to put in.

Labour leader Councillor Graham Jones said he had even received phone calls from Conservative members concerned at the allowance increases.

He said: "Some people are going to come away from this very well off indeed.

"The leader of the council is about to award himself a 20 per cent pay rise when ordinary people in Hyndburn have to put up with rises of two or three per cent.

"He's got no extra responsibility because he is doing what he did before, so what is the money for?"

"I think this is grave and we are setting a precedent of people choosing committees for how much they get paid.

"What did we join the council for?

"It's just pure greed."

In reply, Councillor Peter Britcliffe said: "In this council we have a smaller number of councillors than other authorities so councillors in this council have to work harder than in others.

"Over the last two years I have dropped three Cabinet posts. We have absorbed that work.

"It becomes a full-time job running a council these days."

He also responded by saying extra allowances were there to encourage younger people of working age to join the council.

He added: "If you want to encourage younger people to be on the council, financially they do need to be compensated in terms of what they lose in work.

"If not we will have a bunch of geriatrics running the place."

Labour Councillors Bernard Dawson, Clare Pritchard, Malcolm Pritchard, Munsif Dad, and Colette McCormack, were so incensed by the decision to vote through the allowances they asked for their no vote to be recorded.