COUNCILLORS have voted to give themselves an allowance increase - although there was a reluctance to accept the rise in some quarters.

The majority of members attending a full meeting of South Lakeland District Council voted in favour of the one per cent increase on their basic allowance which will rise from £3,998 to £4,038.

However, Windermere’s Cllr Ben Berry (Conservative) argued that he did not think it ‘appropriate’ for the councillors to get a further pay rise.

“It works out as £40 each, which is very little,” he said.

“But bearing in mind it adds up and there’s 51 of us, it sends out the wrong message.

“If you’re uncomfortable, as I am, maybe you can consider donating the £40 to charity.”

Cllr Stan Collins agreed that he would have preferred for there to have not been an increase but the Indepedent Remuneration Panel (IRP) had recommended it and felt members should follow its advice.

“I want this council to continue to accept an independent assessment of what we should be paid rather than setting the precedent and deciding ourselves,” said Cllr Collins.

“So I shall be voting for this although I don’t entirely agree with it.”

Council leader, Cllr Giles Archibald, thanked the panel for its work and said that nobody wanted the council to the be ‘preserve of the independently wealthy’.

“It’s very important that we have an appropriate level of allowances to make sure money is not a barrier to people serving on this council,” he said.

“We want a cross section of society.”

The IRP also recommended that there would be no change to existing special responsibility allowances (SRA) apart from the removal of an allowance for the vice-chairman of the council.

It recommended that members should receive no more than one SRA and the co-optees’ allowance should be increased by up to a maximum of one per cent to bring it up to £37.63 per meeting.