Arfon Jones
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One way in which I and other Councillors have tried to save money is by utilising Arriva Trains Wales Club 55 discount travel. At certain times of the year ATW will offer return journeys anywhere in Wales for over 55’s for £18 return. As so often happens members of the Executive Board are expected to travel to Cardiff on a regular basis and booking a return fare throught WCBC Corporate booking is about £70 whilst ATW is £18 a saving of £52 on every journey. There are a few anomalies like you can’t arrive in Cardiff before 0930 hrs but to get round that you buy a single from Newport to Cardiff for £4!
There are advantages of being over 55 and as Hugh has pointed out even more when you’re 60.Congratulations to Rob and the team for pulling this together an excellent exercise in measuring candidates responses which at 29% was pretty disappointing.
Hopefully other media outlets will follow your lead, the Flintshire Chronicle to be fair do set candidates for Assembly and Westminster elections a set of questions every week and the responses make interesting reading.
It was also significant the number of candidates that mentioned Solar PV as the best thing the Council has done and not listening to the people in the decision for city status as the worst.
Laughed when I saw Mr Lipka’s comment on why he’s a Conservative:
Welsh Conservatives are helping people back to work
News to me!
We all have laptops if we want them, personally I use web access to council via my own PC. The council also provides training in IT and the use of laptops.
The bit that shocked me about that was how much some councillors are claiming for petrol. I know it’s hardly cheap, but I fail to see how you can invoice for £1,500 for carrying out council business.
Liam – Bear in mind that one of the biggest travelling claims is by the Councillor for Glyn Ceiriog, is it fair therefore to compare the claim of someone who lives considerable distance from the Guildhall with someone who say lives in Acton.
The basic allowance in Wrecsam is similar across Wales, it is now set by an Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales which frankly is long overdue. The big differences across Wales is the Special Responsibilty Allowance paid to Cabinet/Board Members who lead on certain areas like Environment, Housing, Education etc. In Wrecsam the SRA is about £6,000 which the Cllr gets on top of their allowance which then brings it up to £19,000. But if you take the SRA in Ynys Mon where Commissioners have gone in because it was judged to be a failing authority, the Lead Members used to get £17,000 SRA per year bringing their total allowance to nearly £40,000! (Says it all!)
Perhaps the reason for lower allowances in Cambridgeshire County Council is that Cambs Council does not undertake the whole remit of what Welsh Unitary Authorities do because there are 2 layers of local government in Cambridgeshire, the County Council and 5 District Council also delivering services and probably the Cllrs in those districts also get an allowance.
It was similar in Wales before 1996, when you had Clwyd County Council and the district councils of Wrexham Maelor, Glyndwr, Delyn and was it Alyn and Deeside? underneath the county council.
Hope this answers your question.
Is the Mr Dodman who is the UKIP candidate for Garden Village still involved with the Smithy Service Station on Chester Road?
