Independent Falkirk councillor demands answers on why scrutiny role is not paid extra

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An Independent councillor is still demanding to know why the position he holds on Falkirk Council overseeing the Scrutiny committee is not among those to get paid extra.

Councillor Brian McCabe, who represents Denny and Banknock, previously raised the issue at meetings of Falkirk Council but he has not been satisfied with the answers he was given.

Now, he has written to the leader of Falkirk Council, Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn, and to COSLA asking for more detail on how such decisions are made. Read more: Unsafe children's scooters among items seized by Falkirk's trading standards team In his letter, he challenged Cllr Meiklejohn to explain "what deliberations were carried out to arrive at some of the posts being remunerated and others not".

And he now says he is angry that he has not had a response after 16 days.He believes it is discrimination against his Non-Aligned Independents Group that the convenership of Scrutiny is not a paid role while councillors in charge of Planning, Civic Licensing and the Licensing Board do get a financial uplift.At the first meeting of the newly elected council in May, he and Councillor Robert Spears - the two members of the Non-Aligned Independents Group - put forward an amendment seeking parity for the Scrutiny Convenor’s role.They were told that strict rules mean that in Falkirk - with 30 councillors - only 14 roles can be remunerated and a cap of £342,524 is in place.That meant that their request could have been accommodated within budget - but other councillors did not support this.