ALLOWANCES for members of Lancashire County Council will be frozen for the next 12 months.

The authority voted to forego the annual two percent rise in the basic rate of £10,675 paid to all county councillors and also to scrap payments made for meals.

A suggestion by two independent members that councillors should not be able to claim travel expenses to get to and from County Hall was defeated by Conservative and Labour councillors.

Cllr Paul Greenhall said: “County Hall should be regarded as a person’s normal place of work. That’s what happens in the real world and that’s what we get the basic allowance for.

“I probably spend £1,500 every year to travel to work – and I’m not entitled to claim that money back.”

Deputy leader of the Labour opposition group Cllr John Fillis said there was a crucial difference between councillors and those in the world of work.

He said: “The fact is, legally, we are not employed.  We get no minimum wage, no pensions, no maternity leave.

“You only have to look at the responsibility we all take on – a budget of £800m a year – and yet there are people trying to minimise the work we do.”

Cllr Fillis added:"Freezing the allowances is appropriate in the current financial situation.

"But it should be a short-erm measure or we ill have a longer-term problem getting a wide range of people other than the very wealthy or retired to become councillors."

County council leader Cllr Geoff Driver said: "In the current financial situation and when we are cutting service, freezing allowances is the right thing for us to do. We have also tightened up on travel expenses."