FROM a public relations viewpoint, it may come across badly that, having qualified for a big rise in their allowances because of Blackburn with Darwen's new unitary status, its councillors are already considering how they should be increased annually.

It is, of course, important to note that the issue is not by how much their expenses should go up - the council effectively steered round that contentious question in the run-up to self-rule by passing it to an independent panel which recommended significant increases.

Rather, it is the system of annually reviewing the level of allowances that is now the technical consideration.

But though, as a consequence, council taxpayers may bridle, they ought perhaps to pause and reflect on the purpose and necessity of both the allowances and a sound system of reviewing them.

For without them, they would end up being poorly represented.

It was often said that in the old days, when there were no such rewards, people served on the council out of a sense of public duty. Many did, but they were essentially those who could afford to - the retired, the business class and the full-time trade unionists - rather than the representatives of ordinary people.

Who would wish to return to the system of local government being run by elites or interest groups?

That said, councillors have a duty to be realistic on the levels and nature of their allowances - and some might argue that peripheral perks, such as mobile phones and computers are outside that scope.

But since it was recommended by the independent commission that future rises in expenses should be linked to the average wage of non-manual workers in the town and it is now revealed that no such narrowed-down yardstick exists in earnings surveys, a new one has to be found.

Thus, council officials now suggest that increases in councillors' allowances should be linked to the local government pay settlement.

This should suffice - particularly in view of the built-in restraint that has come with the government's oversight of public sector pay.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.