Earlier this month, my colleague Cllr Helen Dick and I advised the City Council's new Chief Executive David Dorward that we want to voluntarily reduce our own councillor salaries to last year's level, given that public services are under very considerable financial strain and this is a time when all elected representatives should be showing restraint and putting public services first. (See http://tinyurl.com/dundeecllrsalary or click on headline above to view the earlier article from 18th September). As regular readers of www.dundeewestend.com will know, Dundee's LibDem councillors made a request to Finance Minister John Swinney to change regulations to permit councils to limit councillor salaries below the maximum level, should each council agree by democratic vote to cut or freeze them, but this request was turned down by Mr Swinney. We therefore decided on a voluntary cut in salary to last year's level; clearly if other councillors in the city and elsewhere in Scotland were minded to act in a similar manner, there would be a sizeable benefit to public services overall.
We specifically asked the new Chief Executive if he would agree to the saving to be used to benefit community groups in the city. I have now been updated by Mr Dorward as follows :
“I can advise you that your proposal is acceptable, and if implemented from the 1st April 2009 for both yourself and Councillor Dick would generate a saving of £775 in the current financial year 2009/10 . The Director of Finance will add these amounts to the Leisure & Communities Department small projects grants for the financial year 2009/10.”