Councillors' allowance list revealed

Published Date: 12 June 2009
By Charles Graham
Official figures reveal councillors in Wigan claimed more than £1m in allowances over the last year.

Newly-released documents show that the amount has climbed steadily from £879,900 four years ago to break the seven-figure barrier for the first time in the financial period 2007-2008.

The local authority has published a list of allowances claimed

[…]

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Councillors39-allowance-list-revealed.5360940.jp?CommentPage=1&CommentPageLength=10#comments

1 whatnicknameisnotinusethen?,
12/06/2009 11:25:53
Interesting. I thank Wigantoday for this information.Its interesting to note P.R. Franzen who has stated publicly on this very same site he has not claimed a penny whilst a councilor."FRANZEN, P R Not elected May2008 £1,808.35"

2 Desparate Dan,
12/06/2009 12:06:56
Old news this was diclosed in the Wigan Reporter last week? Suggest they consider handing out all expense paid summer destiation vouchers to all Wiganners who pay their Council Tax. Might even restore our faith in their integrity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! !! !

3 whatnicknameisnotinusethen?,
12/06/2009 13:00:03
I just want my money back.

4 A Grafter,
12/06/2009 13:34:29
I wonder why these people set out to be councillors, is it to help their constituents, in which case we need more of those. Or is it because they can get 30k a year for doing it? If these people are full time councillors then they should get paid. One thing is for sure anyone who is doing a full time job and an extensive councillor role isn't doing justice to one of the roles, and I think you can guess which one that is likely to be.(Clue: which one would he get sacked from?)

5 tongue in cheek,
on the edge 12/06/2009 14:46:18
oink ! oink !

6 celedrialjoy,
wigan 12/06/2009 15:28:17
I notice that they have not mentioned jeanette prescott, the wife of paul prescott or her expenses. must be nice keeping it in the family. Double snouts in the trough.

7 trucker john,
pemberton 12/06/2009 15:42:28
pigs in the trough come to mind, councillor prescott claiming £25000,a year,£500 a week which is £70 a day,he is elected to look after the people in pemberton, and norley hall is one of the deprived areas of wigan, how has he got the shame to show his face to the people of his ward, plus his wife has claimed a small fortune,he should be ashamed of himself,and as for lord smith £200000 over four years,the sooner they are slung out of office the better

8 Peter Franzen,
golborne 12/06/2009 16:18:11
Comment number 1 whatnicknameisnotinusethen?,12/06/2009 11:25:53 Hi whatnicknameisnotinusethen?You said QUOTEInteresting. I thank Wigantoday for this information.Its interesting to note P.R. Franzen who has stated publicly on this very same site he has not claimed a penny whilst a councilor."FRANZEN, P R Not elected May2008 £1,808.35"UNQUOTEApparently you do not understand the difference between allowances and expenses.Never-the-less you should take the trouble to acquaint yourself with the facts before you come on here hiding behind your anonymous pseudonym and accusing people of lying.Allowances are not claimed, but are paid automatically as reimbursement for Councillors duties and responsibilities, and are subject to deductions of income tax and National Insurance contributions.For the avoidance of doubt in six years as a Councillor I never claimed a penny in expenses.The recent WEP articles that have been regurgitated ad nauseum over the past few weeks are nothing more than a red herring to blur the difference between Councillors expenses and allowances and divert attention away from the real scandal of MP’s expenses.As for your fantastic claims of 480,000 supporters of Al-Qaeda in the UK, have you reported them to the police?Peter FranzenLeader Community Action Party

9 Kettle,
Wigan 12/06/2009 17:04:48
How many would be Councillors if there were no expenses?

10 whatnicknameisnotinusethen?,
12/06/2009 17:14:28
Apologies. Yes, my error. ALLOWANCES!Its an adopted system off the EU. Not content with being able to claim the expenses off the taxman. Allowances go on top.So, you complained that this is beyond the pale and required it to stop?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Al-Qaeda:The cops/MI5/MI6 etc. know the figures. Its been leaked to the press and has been posted all over the net too. Don't worry about it.Now, being in the BNP is apparently, a lot worse than Al-qaeda, Sin Fein, Common purpose, etc.

11 Morgan,
12/06/2009 20:18:57
PeterPeople hide behind psuedonyms for fear of a visit from your friends in the Clawhammer Gang; or fear of abusive phone calls, of which I have had several.I use my real name because these days I have only myself to consider, but most people are a little younger than me and still have children at home to consider.

12 Morgan,
12/06/2009 22:02:16
This looks a likely thread for the attentions of the deleter. As a consequence I've copied it over to the Wigan Today Comments blog. Copy your comments over to their if you want to by-pass the deleter's attempts to censor you.http://wigantodaycomments.blogspot.com/

13 Morgan,
12/06/2009
Error – their = there

To continue copying comments over, continue in the comments thread here. You don’t have to type them out twice – just copy/paste them.

Morg

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MP Turner's expenses in spotlight

Published Date: 04 June 2009By Richard Bean

The Telegraph expenses spotlight has turned on Wigan MP Neil Turner.

The former Metro councillor, whose salary is £64,766, claimed for mortgage interest on his flat in London and up to £400 per month for "food" on some months.

He also claimed for utility bills for the property, council tax and for "small amounts" of furnitiure.
...

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/MP-Turner39s-expenses-in-spotlight.5334045.jp#4093287


Morg

Wigan soldier makes Taleban gun discovery

Published Date: 28 May 2009
A teenage soldier from Wigan unearthed a haul of Taleban weapons on only his second Army patrol.
Fusilier Daryl Toone discovered a loaded AK47 rifle, a pistol and a combat vest containing five magazines of ammunition while using a metal detector to search an Afghan compound in Northern Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

The 18-year-old, from Mosley Common, a soldier in A Company, Second Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, which recruits many of its soldiers from the North West, is currently on operations in the region

...

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Wigan-soldier-makes-Taleban-gun.5310720.jp

I see there is comment on this story, and the phantom deleter is hard at work disrupting the thread. Copy your Wigan Today comments to here then the comments need not be lost.

Morg
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Your time to vote

Published Date: 28 May 2009
Wigan voters go to the polls on June 4 for the European Parliamentary elections.

They will be asked to help elect a panel of eight MEPs to represent the North West Constituency incorporating the Metro borough, one of the UK's 12 electoral regions.

Unlike the UK Parliamentary elections, Europe uses proportional representation.

…

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Your-time-to-vote.5312960.jp?CommentPage=1&CommentPageLength=10#comments

I see the deleter is bringing himself up to date with deletion of all mention of this place. Well, ok, it’ll take time for word to get around. Just mention the link to here every time you make a comment, anywhere, in any comment thread, and write at the bottom:

“In order to frustrate the phantom deleter, cross posted to this same story on


http://wigantodaycomments.blogspot.com/

If you have a comment to make here, then please do the same to avoid deletion.”

Or words to that effect. Over a few weeks most readers will get to know of it, though no doubt the deleter will be working overtime in the meantime.

Don't forget to mention the story in whatever comment thread is at the top, and I, or one of the other contributors will add it to the blog so it then has its own comment thread - then just follow the above routine - post your comment on Wigan Today, then copy it to here. Readers will soon learn that to read the deleted comments they just come here. It's a bit late for this story, but we had to start somewhere.

Still want volunteers to be contributors here so that generally, there's always someone who can post a story from there to here and start a comment thread. E-mail me via my 'About me' button, and I'll send an invite/authorisation. I can't do it all myself. Liberty and freedom of speech are not work-free.

Morg
.

HOW TO DO IT

Any article on Wigan Today that starts attracting comments but may be controversial, copy the title to here, copy the first three paragraphs to here, then copy the link to here (that's the address in the address bar for that story). You'll soon learn how to post blog comments here. Even I managed it.

Then any comments you make to the main Wigan Today story, immediately copy the comment over to the comments section under the same story on this page. Could easily be several stories going at the same time.

In time this will make the deletions button redundant on the Wigan Today site. In theory, anyway. Franzen and his ilk will go fkn bananas.

Need some more authors here so we can keep up to date. Volunteers?

No, not you Peter, or any of your comrades. No way am I giving you lot control of a deletion button, ANY deletion button. You laftards are far too fond of censorship.

DELETIONS POLICY

Deletions are not to be utilised over mere disagreement. I expect there to be plenty of that, and hope this will be a lively and productive site - productive of thought, that is, through rational argument. Deletion is for determined trolls and deliberate libellers only (they are the people who try to get the blog shut down by deliberately writing a libel and then complaining to google - or deliberately writing illegalities and complaining to google - if you see any of this, delete it).

Remember this if you want to be an author - you'll inevitably have to leave plenty of comments in place that you personally disagree with - maybe profoundly disagree in some cases.

Disagreements and arguments (also known as debate) are expected here.

Occasional bad language is acceptable, but SERIOUS obscene language is unacceptable. We all know what I mean by this.

Peter, even you can comment here - but you know the limitations - persistent negativity will get you deleted. Here WE make the deletion rules, not you with the "comment inappropriate" button.

Hopefully, this blog will make the Wigan Today deletion button pointless.

Any further suggestions?

EASIER COMMENTING

I think I've enabled anonymous commenting. You can always add your commenting name at the bottom of each comment. So pick a short one - but let us know who you are on the Wigan Today pages sometime early on.

I have an additional suggestion about how we do this:

Make comments as normal on the Wigan pages - then copy the comments to here for the same story on these pages. Is this making sense? You can always ask in the latest set of comments for me to add the story.

Hell - we'll work out a regular procedure and we can then take it from there. I'll still be giving Socialist 1/Red and his ilk a big fuckoff though.

So - comment on Wigan Today - copy comment to here. If you want to be an author here to post your own stories (save waiting for me to see it first), just email me with your email address and I'll send you an invite. Once you are a registered author here - you'll also be a deleter should you so desire. Once you've signed in, a little dustbin appears at the bottom of every comment - click the dustbin and delete.