 |
 |
Unnecessary expenses Claims
June 4, 2009 9:00 AM
Cllr Graham Longley, Leader of the LibDem group on Southend Council called for a sensible approach to the claiming of expenses today following an article calling on councillors to forgo all expenses.
A recent newspaper article criticised members on the Borough Council for claiming travel expenses and suggested they should not be made. "Clearly," said Cllr Longley, "if a member is asked to travel to Cambridge, London etc then there should be no reason, at all, why the member should not be able to claim the cost back. They should not be expected to fund these activities themselves. I never claim but I am in a position not to but I would not deny the other the right to do so.
Where I would agree with the call to restrict expenses is where members claim travel expenses for going from their home to the Civic Centre and back for meetings! I believe this is quite unacceptable in that we are given an allowance of £8000 per year, plus telephone plus computer, to do the job and that job must require visits to the Civic Centre. Surely no elected member thinks they will never need to go to the Civic Centre. To claim for, what in some cases might be, less than a mile trip is unforgiveable and should be stopped." he said.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats