TORY councillors have been accused of giving themselves a pay rise with extra allowances after taking back control of Basildon Council.

Since taking over control following the local elections the Conservatives have increased the number of committees from seven to 13 meaning more councillors can enjoy the bonus of a special responsibility allowance.

The decision had been criticised by the rival Labour group and has also now been questioned by an independent remuneration panel.

Labour group’s deputy leader, David Burton-Sampson, said: “On the doorstep during the recent by-elections the public were well aware of the Conservatives actions with their allowances and were rightly fuming.

“We now see this report from the panel agreeing with us, that this new committee system does not warrant the allowances currently allocated.”

Independent councillor Kerry Smith added: “As the former chair of the housing and community committee what needs to be addressed is that I got one special responsibility allowance, which is just shy of £9,000.

“Two committees have now been created, one dealing with the community side and one dealing with the housing side and now there are two chairmen receiving nearly £9,000 and allowances are paid to the vice-chairmen.”

The changes have cost the council an extra £72,000 per annum.

The independent panel has recommended the allowances be reduced as the workload is being shared.

The recommendation is to reduce the allowances from £132,412 to £90,828.

The Tories have agreed to reconsider the decision but slammed the independent report.

Council leader Andrew Baggott claimed the report was “incredibly poor” and ordered a second report to be ready for the full council meeting in October.

It was agreed the reduced allowances would be adopted in the meantime but could be backdated depending on the decision at the next meeting.

He said: “It is a poor report, it’s shallow in its research, it’s predicated on a false foundation and it’s engineered to create a result without any thought or understanding of the working of the council or the long-term consequences.”