MEMBERS of Ferryhill Town Council have rejected payment for their service to ease the burden on the town's council taxpayers.

An independent remuneration panel had recommended that the town's councillors should receive £600 a year for their work.

Because there are 17 members of the council, that equates to £10,200, a sum that would have to be met by the people of Ferryhill.

Although not a huge amount, it represents a significant proportion of the council's relatively small budget and would have been added to next year's council tax precept.

Jamie Corrigan, the council's executive officer, said: "The reason they decided to reject the recommendation is because members felt that it has always been a voluntary position.

"Parish and town councillors have never received payment and they feel they could not justify it to the council taxpayers

"To add it to the precept this year would mean a significant increase over and above what they charge now, and they did feel uncomfortable with placing that extra burden on the people of Ferryhill."

The leader of Ferryhill Town Council, Councillor Arthur Denton, said members felt the service they gave was sufficient reward.

"The full town council as a whole felt that it would be too much of a burden on the people of Ferryhill to pay councillors for a job that they have done for many years as a service, That is why the decision was taken not to accept the recommendation of the remuneration panel," he waid.

But Coun Denton said he could not rule out members accepting payment in the future if their workloads were to increase in the event of a reorganisation of local government in the region.

Coun Denton said: "I can foresee a situation in the future that if local government changes with the introduction of a regional assembly, some of the burden of government would be passed down towards town and parish councils.

"Whether councillors feel that they should be paid for that service in the future or not, I can't really say."