WITH Yorkshire Dales council tax payers facing rises of 4.2% from next month, new figures released at the weekend show that £1 in every £5 paid by residents goes to fund pensions for local government employees – and that figure does not include teachers and firemen.

And, nationally, it shows that elected councillors – who are paid attendance allowances for going to meetings – are also cashing in by joining local government pensioners schemes.

These figures, revealed by the Taxpayers’ Alliance think-tank, represent a national trend, but taxpayers in the Craven district of the Yorkshire Dales have much to be angry about. In the past three years, the district council has run up debts of more than £2 million – a figure that was only revealed after the resignations of two top executives.

Councillors have since admitted that they did not understand the figures they voted on in previous budgets and are now seeking service cuts to claw back the deficit. But the 4.2% increase, which includes demands from North Yorkshire County Council and parish councils, comes at a time when inflation is forecast to reach zero this summer as the nation dips into deep recession.

The national figures revealed by the Taxpayers’ Alliance include:

• Over 3,500 local councillors now take gold-plated local government pensions
• Local Authority staff pensions cost £4.5 billion in 2007-08, excluding teachers and firemen
• Pensions cost 19% of council tax revenue – equivalent to £1 in every £5 of council tax raised
• Average council now spends over £9.8 million on employer pension payments - up 7% from last year