Statement by Bannside councillor and TUV party treasurer Timothy Gaston:
“The National Association of Councillors Northern Ireland Region Councillor Equality Proposal 2024 amounts to nothing more than 14 pages of whining by the four big parties in local government.
“The report claims that the “range and scale of councillor’s responsibilities” isn’t recognised and moans about how they were “seriously impacted” by the collapse of Stormont – even though in reality it freed up MLAs to do more constituency work.
“It goes on to suggest that councillors receive “secretarial support, office facilities, equipment and stationery supplies deemed necessary to perform Councillor duties” and the introduction of a severance scheme among other things such as a “training allowance”.
“Frankly, if councillors don’t have the skill set to do the job they should have been open about that when standing for election.
“Tellingly, this report – which boasts it has the support of the DUP, Sinn Fein, Alliance, UUP and SDLP – doesn’t manage once to make any mention of the fact that the wish list it contains will place an additional burden on ratepayers who are already facing the prospect of serious increases in their bills.
“The sort of disconnect between the reality on the ground and the political class which this report reveals is frankly staggering and something all five big parties in local government should be ashamed of.”