Repay “pay error”, says BNP

This was the headline on page 11 of the Lancashire Telegraph, December 19th 2009 and it refers to what appears to have been an accidental overpayment of allowances for some Burnley councillors. 

The Lancashire Telegraph are no friends of the BNP but they did their sums and came to the conclusion that the BNP were correct in their claim and that some senior Burnley councillors have been overpaid. For reasons best known to the Telegraph the story does not appear on their website so we have reproduced it here. (Click image to view)

Many of the ruling Liberal Democrat councillors who most benefited from the overpayment are supporting a move to legitimise the discrepancy and keep their ill-gotten gains. Unsurprisingly Labour and Tory councillors are backing their Liberal Democrat cronies in refusing to support a call by the BNP for councillors to repay the cash.

During a more recent closed meeting in January of this year, Labour, Liberal and Tory councillors again dismissed further calls by BNP councillors to make good the discrepancy and return the overpayments. They are insisting that what was described as an “anomaly” in the councils own agenda is nothing of the kind and was in fact a perfectly legitimate remunerative calculation. 

Two beneficiaries of this remunerative oversight are Labour group leader Cllr Julie Cooper and Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Gordon Birtwistle.

Both these councillors are their parties candidate for MP.

Following the revelations of last years Parliamentary expenses scandal, it would appear  Cllr’s Cooper and Birtwistle are already practicing for the post.