Long welcomes victory on allowances publication

Castlereagh Alliance Councillor Michael Long has welcomed the publication of the Councillor expenses for 2009-10 on the Council website after highlighting the delay in publication in the local press. Cllr. Long also noted that Alliance Councillors again had the lowest allowance claims of the 3 main parties in the Council with average claims of 11070.74 compared to 12341.63 for the UUP and 12411.16 for the DUP members who served for the whole of the year.

Cllr. Long said, “After expressing my disappointment last week at the fact that expenses from last year had not yet appeared on the website after a number of months, I am pleased to see that they have now been published. This is a victory for the campaign to increase openness and transparency as I feel that ratepayers have a right to have access to this information in a timely fashion.

“Looking at the figures, it is good to see that Alliance again has the lowest average claim of the 3 main parties on the Council with average claims of over £1000 less than those of UUP and DUP members. I think providing value for money especially in these difficult financial times is vital and Alliance is clearly delivering on this agenda.”

ENDS