THE new leader of Basildon Council has denied claims that the Conservative party has given its members a £100,000 pay rise.

The Tories have taken back the reins of the council after a coup by Labour, independents and Ukip councillors ousted them last year and brought in a committee structure instead of a cabinet one.

Now the Tories are back in control, they have increased the number of committees to 13, with 84 seats.

Labour claims this will cost £70,000 a year and is, in effect, the Tories “giving themselves a pay rise”.

This has been denied by Andrew Baggott, leader of Basildon Council.

A petition has been set up by Gavin Callaghan, who lead the council and was leader of the local Labour party until he stepped down, calling for the change to the committee system to be overturned.

Adele Brown, leader of the Basildon Labour Party said the petition came from concerns from residents about the suspected pay rise.

She said: “A cynic would ask why he has to have that many committees.

“We have been speaking with residents and they are concerned about this.

“The council will need to employ additional officers to deal with the work load.

“The petition is about giving the residents a voice regarding this issue.”

Andrew Baggot, council leader said the claims are labelless and slanderous.

He said: “Councillors are not paid a salary but do get allowances. The money for the allowances for things like meetings are agreed by an independent board.

“I cannot give an amount of how much the cost of the committees, meetings and the work will be as we do not know yet.

“I don’t want to mislead the public by giving out figures we don’t know. If something doesn’t work we will change it.”