Wage freeze for top councillors

Senior councillors at Nottingham City Council have volunteered to take a wage freeze due to the economic downturn.

The councillors - who earn £17,297 as executive members - will not receive a pay increase this financial year.

The council said there will also be a reduction in the number of councillor posts which will pay for the creation of a skills and training role.

Last month the council approved a budget which could lead to 350 posts being cut to make up a £20m deficit.

'Small sacrifices'

Deputy leader of the city council Graham Chapman said: "The skills agenda is very big and it's getting bigger and the council is having to take on more responsibility.

"To create another post we couldn't possibly add it to the council tax and we didn't want to take the money away from other services.

"So we decided we would make some small sacrifices ourselves."

Mr Chapman also said he hoped that the net job losses would not be anywhere near the 350 initially announced.

"In the end those posts that will be lost, quite a lot will be redeployed, take voluntary redundancy or retirement."