COUNCIL leader Alan Melton described this week how he relied on his wife’s earning as a town clerk to get him through his bad days as a councillor.

Cllr Melton, leader of Fenland Council but also a Cambridgeshire County Council, said he unashamedly supported the 25 per cent rise in county councillors’ allowances.

And he told a meeting at Shire Hall which narrowly voted in favour of the increases that he couldn’t care less what the press or “anonymous Tweeters” thought about him.

“I will vote in favour and I am not worried about the plethora of letter writers going to appear in Cambridgeshire Times next week,” he said.

“Neither am I concerned about the vociferous and anonymous tweeters without the guts to stand up and say what they think to your face.

“The people I will answer to are my electorate and as I long as they are satisfied I am doing a good job I will continue to stand. I’m proud of my record and I can stand by that record.”

Cllr Melton said he had been a councillor for 30 years, had won 13 elections and “yes I draw from the public purse. I have never tried to hide that and I am totally open and transparent.”

He described his work for the Local Government Association, his duties for the European Committee of Regions and his “salary or expenses from Fenland District Council.

When he first entered politics local government was dominated “by teachers who took their three days off, the very wealthy retired, very wealthy farmers and trade unionists sponsored for their time off”.

Over the years he had realised the present system was flawed and it did not provide enough for future generations of councillors.

At the moment it was a “very unattractive” package on offer to councillors and he was anxious that a large number of people with vital experience were not disbarred from standing