Exeter councillors award themselves new pension scheme

By PRSD, on Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Oddly enough, leading Exeter Councillors defended their decision to award themselves a mighty fine pension deal – that’s after the £1.5 million they cut from the budget, the staff they’ve made redundant and the money they’ve frittered away on their push for unitary status.

The pension deal will see the council match contributions of eligible councillors and could cost the council around £50,000 in the first year. Previously, the Local Government Pension Scheme was only open to council staff, but the councillors voted to take up the extension to themselves.

To be fair, the vote was evenly split with mayor Paul Smith casting the decider in favour of the pension, and individual councillors can decide whether they take up the pension.

It could be seen as a move to make a more professional element to your local representation, to open it up to those who would otherwise be in no financial position to represent and battle for their community.

But then again Mid Devon and East Devon district councils have rejected the proposal.

And we’ll leave you with some quotes from the Express and Echo story on the matter.

Mark Wallace, campaign director for the Taxpayers’ Alliance, pointed out: “This is a pension that is so generous that it would be unavailable to most of their constituents.”

Cllr Rob Hannaford, Lib Dem representative for St Thomas told the paper: “During these difficult economic times, I think this sends out entirely the wrong message to our electors, many of whom are struggling to pay their bills and could even be facing unemployment.”

Then again, it may just justify them in the face of an uncertain future as the the decision over the local government structure of Devon is still to be decided (for those who aren’t county councillors at least).