Cost of Conservatives rises further

10.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 19th May 2007

It's taken less than two weeks for Bournemouth's Conservatives to perform their first u-turn by increasing the number of Council Cabinet members from seven to nine, with a warning it could even go to ten!

Yet it was only two years ago that they went around falsely accusing the Lib Dems of doing the same. In fact the Lib Dems did the opposite cutting the number from nine to seven, and saving money for Council Tax payers.

The Conservative changes also include creating a whole load of new posts outside Cabinet, allowing those Councillors to be paid more.

This revelation follows Lib Dem estimates that the newly announced cabinet would mean at least £60,000 more being paid to Conservative councillors over the next four years.

The Council has admitted that the extra costs, now at least £168,000 over the next four years, is money that the Council doesn't have in the budget.

This will either mean a council service will have to be cut, or we will pay for this Tory extravagance through our Council Tax.

Related Link:

Details of changes and costs from Bournemouth Council.