TAXPAYERS have hit out after it was revealed that a councillor earned more than £42,000 from allowances last year.

As leader of the opposition on Lancashire County Council, Liberal Democrat David Whipp earns a bonus of more than £10,000 on top of the standard councillors' pay, making a total of £22,450.

Next year that bonus will rise to more than £17,000.

Councillor Whipp, who lives in Barnoldswick and represents Pendle, also serves on the Lancashire Police Authority, earning him an extra £14,750, and as Pendle Council's executive member for resources he rakes in £5,000 per year.

His income is more than two and a half times that of the average councillor in Lancashire but said he represented good value for money, and worked up to 100 hours a week for the community.

But Blair Gibbs, campaign director of the campaign group Taxpayers Alliance, said: "It has become far too easy for some people to carve out quite a lucrative career in local government, and all at council taxpayers' expense.

"Town halls are spending too much money and big allowances for elected members are part of the problem.

"Councils used to attract those who were committed to their community and would volunteer out of a sense of civic duty.

"Now there are far too many jobsworths just accumulating as many posts as they can and raking in the expenses."

Councillor Whipp also serves on Barnoldswick Town Council. Former chairman Jennifer Purcell said the money for members should be more evenly spread between authorities.

She said: "Town councillors do just as much and we barely get any help towards it. When I was chairman I had a maximum expense limit of £100 - phone calls alone for council business cost more than that.

"But it seems to me there are a lot of double standards - £42,000 is pretty steep."

Councillor Whipp defended his payments, saying he worked an average 70-hour week, sometimes more than 100 hours, including almost every evening.

He said he had also endured threatening phone calls and assault, as well as being admitted to hospital through illness from stress, as a result of the job.

He said: "I work hard to provide good value for the money I get from my public duties. I am a councillor to make a difference, not to make money.

"I must be doing something right. I've stood for election, and won, 21 times in the 27 years I've been a councillor. I confess that my public work is virtually my whole life.

"I'm proud as an ordinary guy who left school at 16 with no qualifications that I can operate at the top levels of local government in the county. And of course it's open to anyone to have a go and do the same - we live in a democracy."

He added that he tended to shun job "perks" like cheap meals and hospitality, and the only expenses he claimed were a fraction of his travelling and childcare costs.

He said: "As a senior councillor I am responsible for the oversight of hundreds of millions of public money. I've more responsibilities and influence over local services than an MP and do it at a fraction of the cost. I've certainly made more savings for the public purse than I've cost it.

"The standard allowances are fixed by an independent panel and if I wasn't doing the jobs someone else would, probably less effectively, so there wouldn't be any saving."

Labour councillor and the county council's cabinet member for sustainable development Coun Tony Martin, often a critic of Councillor Whipp, also defended the allowances.

He said: "The easiest answer in the world is to go back and say let's not pay councillors anything at all, but if you do that you return to a situation where no-one can afford to be a councillor except the landed gentry.

"Considering the amount of work involved in being a full-time councillor, and the fact that maximum job security is only four years, I think it's about right."