THE budget for the Forest of Dean for 2011/12 has been approved by councillors at a heated debate of the full council.

As expected, council tax is to be frozen for at least a year.

Slight amendments were made to the budget proposals over expenditure as councillors refused to accept an increase in their allowances. The councillors also effectively withdrew their individual Information Technology grants as this was merged into their overall allowance.

Cllr Norman Stephens said that democracy comes cheap in the Forest of Dean when it comes to allowances for councillors.

He added: "We've debated many times various ways to keep up the quality of members, but four in 10 people still do not have access to IT and the withdrawal of an allowance may deter a lot of people considering being a councillor and helping their community.

"Its effectively penny pinching when you deduct £150 per head from councillors allowances in the overall scheme of things. The problem is if you don't have sensible allowances only toffs and wealthy people will be able to serve on this council.  

"The problem is in this area we are a council with a mere £11million budget. We are just minnows in the scheme of things."

Cllr Bruce Hogan said: "This debate is a strange one. The government has got councils by the goolies but the fact is that we are stuck with the size of budget we've got."

Cllr Venk Shenoi said: "If we want to save money we need to look at our procurement services, especially photocopying and I know additional savings can be made with our waste collection services."