PHILIP HICKSON

Tory councillor Philip Hickson was paid his full allowance of £7,500 in 2004, despite missing nearly half of the official Police Authority meetings. Cllr Hickson was paid the standard basic allowance of £7,482, plus £48 expenses, for turning up at just 15 of the 28 meetings he was expected to attend.

This means that he was paid roughly £502 per meeting for the 2004-5 financial year. The Police Authority will not ask for a return of any of the allowance, as it is at the representative's discretion as to whether they hand money back.

Mr Hickson, said, "There is a stack of other things we do outside the formal meetings, like police consultative meetings, and a range of other roles that I'm assigned to, like organising civilian custody visits or attending conferences. "I went to as many as I possibly could but some of these meetings clashed with council meetings, and the council takes priority. All of the boards I am on require attention and I feet I did the best possible job I could on the police authority."

Labour leader of Derby City Council, Chris Williamson, said, "I don't know why he was unable to attend the meetings, I'm sure he had valid grounds for not being there but this is a matter for him. If he cannot attend then that's up to the opposition Conservative and Lib Dem parties to decide whether they want to let him carry on." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

The council's former ruling Lib Dem/Tory alliance voted to stop the delivery of free agendas to regular attendees of the city's five area panels in 2004 in a move designed to save between £10,000 and £20,000 a year. Labour councillors claimed the decision was an affront to democracy and pledged to reinstate the free agenda policy when it returned to power. The item was mistakenly omitted from September's meeting of the council, at which the change needs to be ratified.

An attempt to bypass the council by pushing the matter through as a so-called chief executive's urgent decision was blocked by Tory leader Philip Hickson. Mr Hickson said, "I was asked to sign the urgent decision but if it was so urgent, why wasn't it dealt with at the September meeting? Labour members may well vote it in but if I had signed this urgent decision, there would have been no debate at council. It is an abuse of process."

Labour councillor Paul Bayliss said, "Councillor Hickson is quite entitled to stand on his dignity but common sense would dictate that the public of Derby would all want the restoration of the agendas." Paul Pegg, chairman of the Mackworth Estate Community Association, said, "The man is just being bloody minded. He's making himself out to be a poor loser. It's childish and he should grow up." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)