MEMBERS of the conservative borough council were ordered to back a controversial proposal to allow executive councillors to receive extra allowances, a furious councillor has said.

Cllr Keith Baker, leader of the council, denied that he used a three-line whip to instruct members to vote in favour, but another councillor stood up and read from a piece of paper which appeared to show the opposite.

An independent panel recommended that executive members should be capped to just one Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA), the same as neighbouring authorities in the county.

However, Cllr Baker made an alternative proposal, meaning executive members can receive allowances for each post they hold.

Several Tory members backed the decision, sparking outrage amongst the council. One councillor called it an "utter disgrace" and one Conservative member stepped down as a party whip.

At the council meeting on November 17, Cllr Baker was accused of issuing instructions to conservative members to vote for the proposed changes, which he immediately denied.

However, Cllr Gary Cowan stood up holding a piece of paper and asserted: "Instructions to conservative party on the remuneration panel.

"Proposal by Keith Baker, seconded by Julian McGhee Sumner, and they were to vote for."

In a letter to the Chronicle, he added: "The Conservatives were given written instructions to vote for the recommendation."

The proposal was passed by the council, meaning members can receive more than one allowance per person.

The former allowance for non-executive members was £7,148 and executive members received £10,000 while Cllr Baker received £20,000 as leader.

However, under the new scheme, executive councillors can be given more than one special responsibility, meaning they could be paid £10,000 for each post they hold. Councillors can chose not to take the extra funds.

Cllr Cowan, who was recently de-selected from the Tory party, continued: "We have to save £20m of the next three years and here we are giving ourselves a mechanism by which certain members on the executive can get more and more money at the expense of residents."

Cllr Linsey Ferris added: "The proposal to change the recommendation is in my opinion an utter disgrace.

"It smacks of a leadership wanting to keep areas of responsibility into a small area of people.

"It smacks greed on the back of residents of this borough."

Wokingham Borough Council is now the only authority in the area which can give executive councillors more than one SRA. Bracknell Forest, Windsor and Maidenhead and Reading Councils are all capped to one.

Cllr Baker said: "A non-executive member can accumulate multiple SRAs so that it exceeds the cap for an executive member that takes on multiple roles. That is regardless of the actual work carried out by the executive member and that is clearly unfair.

"The leader can control the impact of multiple SRAs by avoiding appointing councillors to more than one committee panel.

"I commit to the council that I will try to do this.

"Bracknell Forest allowances for executive members is £16,000, that's 60 percent more than we allow.

"Windsor and Maidenhead allowances is 20 per cent more than we allow.

"One of the conservative group has said they are going to vote against and I would suggest that's a clear demonstration that a whip is not in place."