ALLEGATIONS of a growing pay gap between councillors and council workers have been rejected.

Unions representing more than a million council workers, including cleaners and administrative staff, are urging that a three per cent pay rise on offer to them be rejected.

The Transport and General Workers' Union said that councillors across the country had voted themselves increases of more than 60 per cent in their allowances during the past five months.

But a number of councils in the region said councillors' allowances had either been frozen, or had increased at the same rate as workers' pay.

A spokesman for Hartlepool Borough Council said councillors' basic allowance of £4,000 had not increased for two years, although it would go up by £500 later this year.

Council leader Arthur Preece had also agreed when he was elected, two years ago, not to accept an approved special responsibility allowance of £12,000, on top of the basic allowance, in order to save tax payers' money.

This allowance stood at £3,200, the spokesman said.

Darlington Borough Council, whose 1,500 Unison workers are being balloted over the proposed pay deal, said that its councillors were bracketed alongside council workers.

A spokesman said: "They get exactly the same rises in allowances as council workers do in pay."

Unions are asking that the local government pay offer for 2002/3 be set at six cent, not three. If the offer is rejected, the next step could be national industrial action, for the first time in 20 years.

Alan Docherty, Unison branch secretary in Darlington, said yesterday: "Local government staff deserve better.

"Most people are extremely committed to their jobs and put in a lot of effort, but are not getting enough in return."