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There are 44 councillors, elected as 18 labour, 5 conservative, 13 independents, 3 Plaid, 3 Peoples Voice and 2 liberals.
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The council is lead by some sort of coalition or "agreement" between the 16 labour councillors, the 3 Plaid Councillors and 2 Independent Councillors (Cllrs Cathcart and Cunnington), making 23 in all.
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Most of the other independents are in a "Group" led by Cllr Liz Haynes who recently took over fron Cllr Stuart Evans.
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The 2 independent councillors who support the labour administration say that they are still fully independent, more so than those in the Independent Group. However it is a matter of record that on every critical vote they and the three plaid councilllors always vote with the labour group.
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Every Councillor gets a basic allowance of £13,030 pa
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Except for Labour Councillor Juliana Biggs every other labour councillor has an additional Special Responsibility Allowance of between £8,304 and £27,679 pa.
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Cllr Biggs, labour, has a full time job and a young family. Last year she was a cabinet member and later became chair of the pensions committee. This year she has no extra responsibility allowance
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Each of the 2 Plaid Councillors, who support labour, has an SRA of £8,304 pa .
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Of the 2 Independents who support Labour Cllr Peter Cathcart has an SRA of £8,304 and Cllr Alastair Cunnington has an SRA of £5,534 pa.
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So, except for Cllr Biggs every councillor who supports labour on critical votes has an SRA.
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The Deputy Mayor from May 2009 is Blaenavon Cllr Tom Huish. He receives an SRA of £5,534 pa. He still appears to vote independently and certainly does not always vote with the labour leadership.
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There are 24 SRA's among a total of 44 councillors. The Welsh Office think that more than 50% of councillors getting SRA's is wrong.