Dear Editor, I enjoyed your cartoon of a Western style shoot-out in Edgbaston between Deirdre Alden and Gisela Stuart but I was very disappointed that Gisela is playing dirty by suggesting that “the Alden family claim £150,000 in expenses”. (Post March 18)
That is as outrageous as it is untrue; Gisela knows that and should apologise.
In fact Deirdre claimed £440 on officially approved travelling/petrol expenses; Councillor John Alden claimed much less and Robert Alden did not claim expenses last year.
By contrast in 2007/8 Gisela’s “Additional Cost Allowance” was £18,245 which included £2,400 for food and £5,021 for repairs and furnishings which Deirdre and the rest of us have to pay for out of our wages or pensions.
Gisela also received other large expenses including £8,458 for travelling.
Gisela did buy a house for when she visited the constituency; she then sold it and pocketed a capital gain of £63,000. As the gain was partly funded by the tax-payer will she repay it as required in future?
I do regret having to be critical on matters of probity but people in glass houses should not throw stones at the innocent.
Councillor James Hutchings (Cons)
Edgbaston
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Dear Editor, In explaining how the Labour MP Gisela Stuart posted on Twitter a gross over-estimation of what my council allowance actually is, Paul Dale has also inflated the amount I am paid.
No councillor is allowed to claim two Special Responsibility Allowances, and therefore I am not paid an extra £4,196 for chairing the Edgbaston Constituency Committee. I have taken on this extra responsibility for the past three years with no extra pay.
Councillor Deirdre Alden,
Conservative Parliamentary,
Candidate for Edgbaston.
