Political leaders in South Gloucestershire have clashed over the creation of three new jobs by the council’s ruling Tory administration.
The new roles, to be filled by Conservative councillors, will support Conservative cabinet members to do their jobs.
An independent remuneration panel will decide whether those councillors will be paid extra to provide the assistance.
Speaking at the first meeting of South Gloucestershire Council since the Conservatives were elected back into power, leader Toby Savage said political assistants were needed because cabinet was smaller than it was a year ago.
But Labour group leader Pat Rooney questioned whether the assistants would provide "value for money" and accused the Conservative majority of consolidating power and personal allowances.
The number of cabinet members fell from eight to seven when Cllr Savage took over as Conservative group and council leader in May 2018.
The workload has been redistributed accordingly, with seven portfolios instead of eight.
The size of the council itself has fallen from 70 councillors to 61, after ward boundaries were redrawn ahead of local elections on May 2.
At this week’s full council meeting on May 22, Cllr Rooney said: “The Tories are about to vote through the creation of more executive support that may well add to the council’s allowances bill.
“These assistants won’t make decisions and may get paid.”
She pointed out that cabinet was proportionally bigger now that the council was smaller, comprising 11.5 per cent of members instead of 10 per cent.
“We have previously noted the growing concentration not only of power, but of personal allowances, to the majority group,” she said. “This proposal would make that growing inequality even worse.”
But Cllr Savage defended the new roles, saying: “The cabinet has reduced, and the number of portfolios has reduced.
“The independent remuneration panel will make decisions around members’ remuneration.”
The three new roles were voted through by the Conservative majority on May 22.
Council papers say: "Councillors holding such a role will not be members of the cabinet and they will not have decision-making powers.
"The question of whether the role would attract an SRA [special remuneration allowance] will be examined by the Independent Remuneration Panel who would make an appropriate recommendation, which would be reported back to council in due course."
