More Feeders at Holley's Trough

Finally the Evening Post seems to be sitting up and taking notice of the corruption at County Hall especially with the monetary handouts given by Holley to his band of hangers-on.
Today they feature an item on how the chair of an area planning meeting was paid almost £600 for a five minute meeting. The meeting only had 2 items on the agenda and was supposed to be attended by 19 committee members (only 12 turned up).

Back in April, Holley controversially increased the number of planning committees from 2 to 4. This would give 2 extra councillors the role of Chair which comes with a special responsibility allowance of £9,708 per year. However, the Evening Post gets it wrong on the figures by claming Swansea council only pays 80% of that figure. It is true that the leader, deputy leader and cabinet members get 80% of the 2007/08 allowance, but in the 8 April 2008 council meeting it was approved to pay the chairs of the scrutiny, planning, licensing and audit committee's plus the leader of the opposition, the full amount of the 2010/11 SRA (special responsibility allowance). So the actual amount paid to Veronyca Bates Hughes for the 5 minute meeting was £746.

Here are the current piglets feeding from the Holley planning committee trough:

Central & East Area Planning Committee

Viv Abbot (Lib Dem) £9,708

North Area Planning Committee

Audrey Clement (Independent) £9,708

South West Area Planning Committee

Paul Tucker (Independent) £9,708

West Area Planning Committee

Veronyca Bates Hughes (Lib Dem) £9,708

Also note that each of these councillors receive a "basic allowance" of £12,718, taking their total council pay to £22,426. Where else can you earn that sum for a few hours work each week?