A DISPUTE broke out at Winchester City Council over whether councillors should receive an increase in their basic allowance.

Following a review by an independent panel it was recommended that there should be a rise from £5,580 to £6,023 for 2018-19.

This would mean a real-term increase of £443, or 7.9 per cent increase.

But councillors voted to freeze the allowance after concerns were raised by members that it could “send out the wrong message.”

Cllr Ian Tait, Conservative, said it was,” fundamentally wrong” to increase it. “We are not here to earn money, we are here to serve the community. I think it is absolutely the wrong message to be giving out.”

He proposed an amendment for the basic allowance to remain the same, which was seconded by Cllr Fiona Mather, Con.

Cllr Jamie Scott, Liberal Democrat, said: “There is a perception out there that we are paid a salary. I think the wise thing we did as a council was take it to an independent panel.”

Cllr Rose Burns, Con, said: “The Independent Remuneration Panel made very clear their recommendations. They have done a lot of research and work.

“We want to encourage a broad demographic within this council chamber that are representative of our community.”

But Cllr Mather said: “£400 will not make any difference with the demographic of people looking to become councillors.”

Cllr Victoria Weston, Con, said that sometimes councillors have to travel 30 or 40 miles travelling around the district in a day and funding for this comes out of their own pocket, as did increased petrol costs.

Leader councillor Caroline Horrill said she would support Cllr Tait’s amendment for the basic allowance to remain the same.

Cllr Kelsie Learney, Lib Dem, said the amendment would mean a real term decrease of three per cent in basic allowance and said that councillors were “playing politics”.

“We spent a huge amount of money on an independent panel - why did we bother?” she said.

Following a recorded vote on the amendment, 19 councillors were in favour of the amendment, 17 against and five abstained.

A questionnaire that supported the independent review identified that 80 per cent of members thought the current basic allowance was inappropriate and thought it should be higher.

Councillor numbers were reduced for 2016-17 and a budget of £50,000 was approved to deal with the additional responsibilities and workloads.

Currently, Winchester City Council is ranked eighth in the level of basic allowances across the 11 Hampshire district and borough councils.