CASTLE Point councillors have voted to increase their expenses bill by almost £80,000.

At a full council meeting, members agreed with an independent recommendation to increase their annual allowances from £187,108 to £266,908.

The review into expenses was launched after the council adopted a cabinet system, where eight members have a portfolio of responsibilities including environment, housing and leisure.

Each member’s basic allowance also rises, from £2,888 to £3,550. Cabinet members will now also get a special responsibility allowance of £7,100 and the leader of the opposition will receive £3,550.

Deputy leader, Jeffery Stanley (Cons, Boyce) said: “We know our scheme of allowances is low and it is recognised as being one of the lowest in the country.

“An independent panel has been appointed and they are not known by us. They are beyond bribery.

“They’ve had access to a large number of papers and we can see from the report they’ve based their recommendations on the average of what other councillors get.”

Peter Greig, a Canvey Indepedent for Winter Gardens, proposed a motion asking for the increase in expenses to be deferred until the “economic climate” was better, which was supported by fellow independent Barry Dixie.

Dave Blackwell, leader of the Independents, said the decision to increase expenses would not be accepted by the public.

He said: “Nobody doubts councillors work hard in doing their job and we are one of the lowest paid councils in the country.

“But we have residents out there who are going to struggle to pay their council tax and even food bills.

“The message we should be giving out is, ‘here, we are, a responsible, caring council.’ However, Bill Dick, a Tory councillor for St Peter’s, said the increase was necessary because it had been put off for years and the amount of expenses now fell significantly behind other councils in Essex.

The motion proposed by Mr Greig was defeated and councillors voted to accept the increase in expenses by 19 votes to 13 – with Bill Sharp, Tory for St James’, abstaining.