WEST Sussex councillors are considering giving themselves a £2,000 rise.

The massive increase in allowances has been recommended by an independent panel and is aimed at encouraging younger working people to stand for

election.

Under the proposals, the old allowance of £37 paid every time a councillor attends a meeting, along with a lump sum of £765 a year, would be scrapped.

In its place a flat rate payment of £5,000 a year would be introduced and councillors would still able to claim travel expenses.

At present a typical councillor claims around £3,000.

Also being introduced for the first time would be a carer's allowance of up to £4 an hour in a bid to persuade more people with young

children and the disabled to stand for election.

There are also likely to be big increases in the special responsibility allowance paid to senior councillors who chair committees and

sub-committees.

It would mean councillors in charge of major services such as education and social services would get £5,000 a year instead of £2,715.

The special allowance for the chairman and leader of the council would jump from £3,615 to £10,000 a year.

The cost of the changes in a full year would be £440,000, compared with the current £256,200 bill.

The package has been recommended by an independent panel brought in to review the way councillors are paid. Councillors will discuss it for the first time on Friday.

The panel says it believes

the public will not find the new basic allowance of £5,000 unreasonable.

The report says: "It may also encourage younger, working people to stand for election and help to produce an age profile among members of the county council which is more representative of the population as a whole." At the moment the average age of the council is 61 and only two members are aged under 35.

There are no manual workers and only 19 of the 71 councillors are women.

The panel says: "We appreciate the experience and commitments from those able to give more time. However the wider the spread of age groups, the more likely it is that the broad interests of the population will be expressed and taken into account in reaching decisions."

Tory councillor Henry Smith, one of only two younger members, agreed. But he added: "There is a difficult balance to tread here because I do not want to see people going into local politics to pick up a fat cheque.

"I am lucky because I am self-employed but I can see how the current system does preclude some people."

Coun Smith, 30, a mortgage adviser from Crawley, said he estimated he spent two working days a week on council

business.

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