HOW much do your councillors deserve for doing the job?

The members of South Oxfordshire District Council decided they were worth £4,575 a year of their voters’ money.

Leader John Cotton decided he was worth nearly £23,000 of taxpayers’ money each year for the time he devotes to the job. He convinced 26 of his fellow Tory councillors to agree with him, saying his council had eschewed increasing their allowances year after year since 2007.

The problem is, if they had simply increased their allowance in line with inflation, the figure they receive would be slightly less than the £3,500 recommended to the council by an independent remuneration panel.

He warned the council that if they did not put up their allowances they risked alienating people who were interested in becoming councillors because of the expense. Well, 130 people stood for the council’s 36 seats on May 7, so that does not seem right.

Mr Cotton told his council and the few members of press and public at last Thursday’s meeting that the allowance level would still be among the lowest in the South East.

So the question is: are you getting your money’s worth? Please send us your views.