PARISH councillors in Fishburn have voted not to accept an allowance as remuneration for their role.

Members voted unanimously to decline the payment proposals, which would have to have been met by council tax payers in the village.

An independent panel had recommended that members of Fishburn Parish Council should receive some form of payment for their council work for the first time.

They said each of the 11 members of the council should receive £200 a year, with an extra £100 a year being paid to parish council chairwoman Councillor Susan Nicholson.

Although that would only mean an extra £2,300 a year, it represents a large part of the council's budget.

Parish clerk John Irvine said: "Parish councillors can now qualify for an allowance, where previously it was only for borough or parish councillors.

"There is an independent remuneration panel which makes a recommendation on what that should be.

"You don't have to accept that recommendation. You can vote yourselves more or less, it all depends on what you feel you ought to do, but at the end of the day you're responsible for your own electorate.

"In Fishburn the councillors unanimously declined the recommendation and said they did not want an allowance.

"They did not really discuss it that much. They said they had never had anything in the past and they said they did not want it now."

The panel hopes that by offering allowances it would encourage more people to stand as councillors at grassroots level, especially if members' workloads increase in the light of local government reorganisation.

Fishburn's precept stands at £47,000 a year, met by the parish's 1,900 residents. Even a modest increase of £2,300 would represent a big rise in percentage terms.

Mr Irvine said: "You are talking about a five per cent rise, so we would have to have a five per cent rise in the precept just to pay for councillors' allowances, and that is before inflation or anything else. It is a lot of money for a parish like this to spend.

"I think it is quite noteworthy in this day and age and it is not an election year, so this is not electioneering from the councillors."