Published: Wednesday, 3rd June, 2009 2:38pm

Fury over £7k expenses

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A BARRHEAD councillor has defended claiming £7k of taxpayers money by saying he is worth it.

Councillor Eddie Phillips topped the expenses table by claiming £7,151 over the past year.

He claims that 40 per cent of this is to attend conferences having attended 13 conferences last year this works out on average as £208 of Barrhead tax payers" money per event.

But Eddie, who is in various groups like COSLA, told the News that his expenses are more costly because he does more work for the town compared to the town"s other three Councillors.

He said: 'I am the busiest councillor in the area, the other councillors" remit takes up one side of A4 but mine takes up the other side.

'Regarding the £2,700 spent on conferences I didn"t see a penny of that, I have no say on what it costs in administration for conferences.

'A lot of the conferences are incredibly important in terms of networking.

'Nine months of my expenses is like one week of an MP"s.

'I think my expenses are all there open to the public, I have no problems and the public had no problems with me last year.

'Residents see me the most, they see me doing the most - you get what you pay for.'

Councillor Douglas Yates, convenor for social work and health, was surprised at Councillor Phillips comments.

He said: 'Eddie Phillips obviously doesn"t see my diary and my commitments.

'If anyone speaks to my wife they will know she never sees me, I spend anything between 40 and 60 hours a week as a councillor - he is not the most hard working councillor.

'An individual expense claim is something for the council to answer and that"s why we publish the expenses so that people can make their own minds up.

'I am delighted that the council showed transparency on all these things, nothing should be hidden.

'I claimed just over £3,000 for petrol, conferences and phone bills. People are entitled to know how their money is spent.'

Depute Provost Betty Cunningham claimed £2994 from the public"s purse despite doing very little for the people of Barrhead over the past two years.

She said: 'The level of expenses reflects the way different councillors do their jobs. I use my phone a great deal so my expenses are higher because of that.'

Housing Convenor and Barrhead councillor Danny Devlin had the lowest claim out of all Barrhead Councillors £784 which he claimed for petrol and phone bills.

Norie Williamson, director of finance added: 'It"s important that residents and businesses know what councillors are paid and what expenses they claim.'

Betty Cunningham Ward 2 £2,994

Danny Devlin Ward 2 £734

Douglas Yates Ward 2 £3,193

Eddie Phillips Ward 2 £7,151

Tony Buchanan Ward 1 £1,910

Charlie Gilbert Ward 1 £4,676

Elaine Green Ward 1 £1,478

Leslie Rosin Ward 1 £156

Jim Fletcher Ward 3 £3,468

Alex Mackie Ward 3 £434

Gordon Wallace Ward 3 £1,260

Gordon McCaskill Ward 4 £1,567

Mary Montague Ward 4 £1,249

Ralph Robertson Ward 4 £1,046

Jim Swift Ward 5 £888

Ian McAlpine Ward 5 £1,251

Barbara Grant Ward 5 £3,169

Alastair Carmichael Ward 6 £1,619

Alan Lafferty Ward 6 £2,830

Stewart Miller Ward 6 £1,584