Ex councillor explains expenses
In last week’s Boston Eye we commented on reports that former Conservative councillor Myles Larrington had claimed his full allowances despite only attending two council meetings in a year.
He’s since written to us to clarify matters – and also to deal with one or two other issues mentioned in the media.
In an e-mail to Boston Eye, Mr Larrington says:
“You may wish to consider the following points, with regard to my expenses claim:
“For 2010/11 I claimed the full basic allowance of £2,378.04. This included the first two quarters of the year, prior to me taking up my employment with John Redwood, when I attended meetings regularly. A significant amount of the claim can be attributed to this period, as can my travel claim of £21.15.
“The media claim I was a ‘councillor in absentia since May 2010’. This claim is incorrect. As I made clear when I originally took up my job with John Redwood I would ‘attend meetings as and when required’ and that I would not ‘be an absentee councillor’. For the record, after May 2010, I attended two formal meetings of the council in September and January 2011.
“The (Conservative Party) statement released on 21st May 2010 has caused some confusion. It stated that: “The other Conservative councillors … will be handling any enquiries or concerns from residents of Cllr Larrington’s Pilgrim Ward. Cllr Larrington will continue to attend council meetings in Boston as required but has declined to accept any remuneration or related expenses in the future.”
“As the statement makes clear I intended NOT to claim any allowances, on the basis that the other members of the Conservative Group would take up any future ward enquiries.
“After taking up my job with John Redwood, I decided that I would still have the time and capability to both travel to and from meetings and to communicate directly with my electorate (and thereby continue to handle ward enquiries myself.) I therefore requested my allowance be reinstated, so I could use this to fund my travel to Boston and undertake work as a councillor.
“I always made clear the rescinding of my allowance would only continue in absence of me performing any work in my role as a ward councillor.
“Questions have been asked about the disappearance of my photograph from the council’s website and the alteration of my number from May 2010 onwards.
“I did ask the council to change my contact number to that of the Member Service’s Officer – so she could take and record any messages for me, as this was helpful. In any case, my mobile remained freely available in the ‘contacts’ section of the website. “However, my photograph was removed without my say so and I never gave consent for this to happen.
“After May 2010 I did undertake some unofficial meetings, including that of Placecheck and visits to some ward residents.
“My overall attendance (even after May 2010) was still better than many other councillors.
“It is important to emphasise that all these allowances were claimed properly and legally.”
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2 comments:
2 official meetings, unofficial meetings, meeting imaginary electorate, no picture, no mobile number, told council dint want allowance but still received allowance, told council to keep photo up but disappeared( if you keep telling the Council to do things and they dont do it you should complain!!!!). Sounds like he has become a proper Tory and learnt from the wizards in London how to receive maximum expense for minimum effort. If he really wants to prove he was a good Councillor for 1 year then ask him to list 5 or 10 good things he did to help people and name the people that he met unofficially and get the electorate who he met and helped to send in references. Basically he got paid £2300 for 2 Council meetings so it works out about £550 per hour he received, would be nice to see his fuel bills from London to Boston (or train fares) to see how much he was back and forth, i imagine would of been 4 times maximum, great Councillor.
We keep hearing so much about Conservative Councillors at the minute, i would also like to hear from them or a member of public to let me know what they have done of any good up to yet.
stopped bus through straight bargate? had 1 Councillor jump ship? Introduce a inferior garden waste collection service? spent £10,000 on a £2000 childrens drawing in the park? allowed £2,000,000 to be spent on destroying the market place? had loads of jollys ? sorted H.M.O's out? sorted high unemployment out? sorted drinking on the streets out?
sorted the schools out that local kids cant find places in because all schools are full in Boston? opened the training pool ? god they have been so busy ?
Whilst Myles Larrington can defend his actions with “It is important to emphasise that all these allowances were claimed properly and legally” I feel they were not in the spirit of serving his electorate as some of our MP's kept repeating this mantra during their expense claims scandals.
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