You can probably imagine how much my eyes lit up when I was reminded about this story in today’s early edition Gasjet. Oh yes. Early in 2009 they published the same story but my site wasn’t really around then, so I’ll take the liberty of highlighting it this time round.
In 2007-2008, the council splurged £74,000 on first class rail travel and the worst offender is my favourite councillor, car park commissar Ian Fowler, with 30 first class rail journeys. In the last six months he has been at it again with another 20 first class journeys costing about £1200.
Apparently Ian represents the council on a lot of boards which have to meet in London, so at £400 per ticket for an open first class return on Virgin, Ian Fowler could have legitimately consumed up to £20,000 of taxpayers money with his 50 journeys. As a real-world comparison, I’ve just this weekend done a return trip to London on Virgin and paid £60.
Ian Fowler’s justification is that you can’t sometimes get a seat in Standard Class because someone might be sitting in it. Yeah, you ask them to move, Ian. He then went on to patronise us with this;
“If people understood the amount of work we have to do, and the papers we have to read and understand, they would realise why we often need to travel first class.”
Come off it Fowler. The only fucking paper you’re reading on your first class jolly is The Sun, and anyway, everyone in the real world learnt at school that you can’t revise for an exam the night before. It’s no wonder the town is such a shambles if those elected to represent it can’t be bothered to put in the necessary homework before crucial meetings and try and cram it in on the way there.
Peter Callow has today attempted to make the same justification in the Gasjet, but could that have anything to do with the fact that in the last 6 months, his wife has made 12 journeys in first class at a cost of a stunning £1800?
Callow also made a further lame attempt to justify his Deputy Leader’s frivolity by saying that millions of pounds of regeneration have been poured into Blackpool due to his input at meetings to which he travelled in first class. I can’t dispute that, but how does that justify a first class rail ticket? Is it some sort of reward for him, Peter? Is that how it works, you support his first class jollies as long as he secures some money for something so you can get yourself in the paper and claim to be regenerating the town?
There’s never a need to travel in first class. There are laptop points and enhanced mobile phone reception in standard class and you can get tables if you ask for one when you book.
To add insult to injury, Sue and Ian Fowler banked a cool £26572.65 in 2008 and £30163.29 in 2009 from their Council duties.
During the same period, elected councillor allowances alone cost the ratepayer £440,220.23 and that Sue and Ian Fowler took home 7% of that.
I find it quite funny how almost all of them take the full ICT allowance of almost £600. Even I, as an IT professional, don’t spend that much on IT every year. Is Norman Hardy really spending more than me on IT every year? I wonder whether it’s possible to get a breakdown of what they’re spending this money on.
I also find it remarkably suspicious how they all claim the maximum allowances for phone bills as well, and that those dual-councillor households claim twice for the same phone bill. Are the Bests, Callows and Taylors really racking up £500 in phone bills every year or are they leaving their phone connected to the Greek speaking clock overnight?
Take a look at the figures for yourselves. Here’s 2007-2008 and 2008-2009. Note the 4% allowance increase there by the way whilst private sector workers are suffering pay cuts in the worst recession of a generation.
Presumably since we’re approaching the end of the financial year, we’ll have some figures for 2009-2010 soon. Should make interesting reading!
What exactly has Fat Fuck Fouler done for Blackpool?
What are his achievemnents to date?
He hasn’t got any, but his failures include destroying town centre prosperity for every single business owner with his policy of taking money off everyone that wants to park their car in town.
I’m sure he was the one that rebuked those brand new 20 odd million quid hotels on the promenade as well, but cant find the article.
It is out of order but nothing like the blatant pisstaking of MPs. They get a massive salary (which councillors don’t) and so many other perks and expenses they don’t pay for anything out of their own pocket. They go to the local Tesco Express and buy a sandwich and a bar of chocolate (£2.50) and claim it on expenses. They should only be able to claim for absolute essentials. Why should we pay their bills for food and Sky TV for their John Lewis bought plasma screens? On £65k a year if they want those they should pay for it themselves. I earn less than a third of what greedy MPs get and I have to pay for all those, we don’t get any perks/expenses.
Being a councillor is not a full time job though. I think the £17k that Ian Fowler gets for a part time all expenses paid job whilst running his scaffolding business is a decent little number for him.
The difference is, we can get Ian Fowler out. He is an absolute menace to Blackpool and has done nothing but destroy the town centre.
The question is do you think the towns would be better served with paid councillors?
No I don’t.
Professional referees didn’t improve the Premier League, after all!
It’d be nice to see some councillors with their head screwed on that are not going to turn up and toe the line like sheep and get rewarded with a nice little bit of extra spending money.
The fact that the Blackpool South railway closure is still in the pipeline tells you that they have lost the plot completely, and the fact that they are pursuing a flawed yet very costly project in the Talbot Gateway simply means they’ve run out of ideas and need to go.
Equal you could say when rugby turned professional did it improve the quality of the game? The answer to that one is a yes. I feel I am good at my job would I reduce my commitment (and therefore my pay) to take on a unpaid unpopular post? No.
Being a councillor isn’t about money though! It’s supposed to be about representing your ward and helping to develop the town as a whole.
My sentiments exactly, I wouldn’t mind being a councillor to serve my hometown, not for the money. But MPs should be doing it to serve the community as Marsden proves they don’t.
The question is would Blackpool be better without that cunt Fowler, the answer is surely YES.
Exactly, and he needs to go. I think if the Tories win the general, the backlash after the cuts and taxes will see to him and a number of his marginal cronies.
You know phil I think that statement is more debatable now then it was four weeks ago. I still agree with it but I will be willing to bet it wouldn’t be a overall majority.
Now about the comments its all about serving the community very laudable and as it should be. I still have a very young family which I won’t see them do without so what do you think I would put first.
1. My family
2. Strangers who if they don’t agree with you wish rectal cancer on you and other such comments
I agree, but I’m not sure what your point is.
Same here.
Phil you say the £600 ICT is a lot my company projects (by the end of the financial year) I would have cost the company £3000 in ICT. Now that is over four sites and one mobile unit (it might be two as they might count my Berry) so is £600 that unreasonable?
These are councillors though; their job is not technical nor is it full time!
Yes I get your point and rereading your article they claim all this ICT support and still use phones a lot. Perhaps they should get more ICT funding so they can learn to use their computers and stop use the phone
Simon Renwick is a councillor and hes good at using computers; to download porn.
Allegedly
If I decided to send 1000 emails right now it would cost me the same as if I didn’t send any.
Equally if I decided to write 1000 documents it would cost me no more than writing one.
It doesn’t follow that the more you use a computer the more it costs, unless you’re doing a lot of printing out or you’re incurring mobile usage charges.
I guess most of them claim their broadband so thats about 10 quid a month… but what else?
£15 a month is probably fairer so that’s £180. So I guess its reasonable that they spend £27 a month on paper and ink?
You’re probably right about them spending £15+, but there are plenty of broadband packages that are less than £10 per month.
My girlfriend pays £8 per month for broadband, line rental and all calls included (AOL), and I’m only paying £8 myself for broadband (O2).
If you have a look at AOL, they do a package with broadband, unlimited calls and line rental for £13, or evening and weekend calls for £9.99.
Addressing your next point, does paper and ink count as ICT usage, and if it does, are each and every councillor printing around 350 full page colour or around 1400 black and white sheets every month? (assuming 8p a print for colour and 2p a print for black and white).
If they’re using that much at home, why aren’t they using the facilities available at the town hall?
what do councillors ACTUALLY do?
They serve their community with great passion, genuinely wanting to make a difference to their area creating a better place for everyone.
If only that were true.
It is true of a few. but it is only a few!
There are some Councillors who claim the ICT allowance but don’t know how to use a computer!
Lets put our cards on the table Phil.
Why don’t you contest Waterloo Ward?
I will help in any way I can by helping design and print leaflets, canvassing, helping set up a ward committee, training on electoral law etc…..
There is already the nucleus of an organisation in Waterloo Ward, I can arrange a first class venue in the Ward to hold meetings, fund-raisers etc…..
There will also be a running-mate available for you as well.
All that is required is for someone to step up and walk the walk!
I can’t guarantee that you will win but I can guarantee that you will make massive ripples and upset a few apple carts
I’m not really interested in becoming a councillor but if that is what it took to get rid of Mr Fowler, then I would consider it.
It’d mean pinning a yellow rosette to my shirt though wouldn’t it?
not necessarily, though a yellow rosette will give you 15-20% head start!
indeed TB
The paid councillor allowance system has come about as a result of trying to get younger people and women into the role. Why this is necessary to be a good councillor I’ve yet to see – but it does mean that people with other commitments tend to want monetary compensation for what they are missing out on or getting other people to do for them now that they are too busy.
If people find the commitment too much then they simply shouldn’t be councillors. In the past there wasn’t an allowance at all and the job still got done. If they haven’t got a passion for trying to improve their community then they shouldn’t be standing at all – they’ll always get flak from someone but the idea is that this flak shouldn’t be deserved.
If there wasn’t an allowance for Councillors I would still do it. However, whilst there is an allowance, I would willingly accept it.
I can see a corellation between the more money elected officials get, the more “accountable” they become. Most Councillors go into politics for the right reasons but some get led astray by power and money.
The problem we have here is that it’s simply a nice little top-up to retirees’ pensions.
I have no problem whatsoever with rewarding people financially for their time and skills. Assuming they have time and skills.
But in real terms, the money isn’t a lot and there is very little power!
I agree though, I don’t blame any individual councillor for taking what the system allows, but I do begrudge the likes of Fowler taking £17k and making consistently poor decisions.
The fact that he’s been abusing the first class rail expenses account and knew about the Kensington donations just tops the cake off.