“A story on excessive paymenys and Parnaby's face is at the top, how predictable. His name and questionable finances are often in the same sentence......

£11640 a year - not much is it? Good job he's a pal of Wardy as well.....”

“foneextra they are advertised for in the paper and are all from Hull. Now if you think you can live on £11,640 a years and no raises for the last 3years at least and you think you are that good stand! If you don't want to, don't be a critic, these people are part time if you want professionals pay more maybe better people would be attracted.”

“''is decided by a committee of independents '' Who are these people and who selects them? Are they paid for this advice and how much? Is it jobs fro the boys or are they true lay people from the community I wounder?”

“to Lily, Hull CC have already published their allowances and expenses. Allowances £11,640 basic, cannot claim more than 1 special responsibility allowance which is X3 for the Leader, X2.5 for the Deputy Leader, X2 for the 8 Cabinet Members and the Chair of Scrutiny Management and X1.5 for the 7 area chairs and 6 scrutiny chairs. Which means unless you are the leader, Deputy, or Cabinet member you really have to have another job or live very frugally because it is not a lot after tax and insurance. When you get a total of £7,200 for expenses for the all 59 of them for the all of last year it is cheapish, but money well spent? That is up to the electrate to decide which is why you have a vote, but please do not go on about how much it is when it is decided by a committee of independents and as to outside bodies as they are called the only ones I know who pay anything at all are the Police and Fire Authorities.”

“ERYC is one of the top rated authorities in the country, due not only to the work that their officers do, but also the work that their councillors do! But to do that work they must travel, London is an expensive train journey away, and the east riding is a large spread out region. These councillors spent most of their year on the road, in hotels, eating alone and away from their families. They do not steal from the tax payer like MP's, they only claim back what they have spent out of their own pockets to do their job, And before accused, i arent a councillor, and dont work for one.”

“Are you worried Councillor Pete?
Oh dear.”

“In answer to "dont like tories" think your self lucky you got rid of some of the Lib \ Dems who never made a decision if they thought they may get a bit of flack, even though the decisions needed to be made by some one.

As for the rest of you. the answer is simple instead of telling us how it should be done, stand for election and show us how could be done.

I see the regular moaners on here who have all the answers but never have the ability to show us the way.

As for the allowances the councillors receive which is the equivalent of a wage, if you all think it is too much as a wage, get elected and offer to do it for nothing.

Pigs may fly in the mean time while we wait for it to happen”

“Jim, I didn't say that they did -did I? I merely expressed a wish that all the local cronies who run the old boys club that is Beverley were called to task. Why so annoyed? Are you an ex town councillor or something?

Don't try and detract from the real news here. and how do you know people aren't planning to stand? They might get a shock.......”

“Fuming - the Mayor is nothing to do with ERYC. They have the Chair of the East Riding to fulfil their civic role and to chair full council.

It's the town councils around the county like Beverley, Bridlington, Goole, etc., that that annually elect a Mayor from amongst their number (and it must be one done this way by law, as they also act as chairman of the town council). No town mayor is paid ¿ the job is a huge honour, but done without salary, although things like travel are covered by town councils to ensure the Mayor does not go out of pocket ¿ not every town councillor is rich and most hold down ordinary, full-time jobs or are retired and on basic pensions.

This whole story indicates that more powers and responsibilities should be passed down to parish and town councils, where those elected to them live locally and do no do it for the money - they do it because they actually care about the places in which they live and want to make a positive difference to their communities. But all too often, even very local decisions are made by ERYC members who do not even represent the areas they are affecting (e.g. not one member of the all powerful cabinet is a councillor for Beverley, yet they make major decisions about the town ¿ the same goes for other areas in the county).

On the other side ¿ for all those who are not happy with their ERYC councillors, the local elections are in May 2011 ¿ get preparing now to stand as independents to challenge the party system and bring a real breath of fresh air into County Hall.”

“You people will vote for the tories, their only agender is how much they can get out of us.”