BOROUGH council staff are to receive a £100 bonus in time for Christmas – but a move to increase the payment and give it to more people was rejected.

As previously reported by The Gazette, council staff were told they were in line for a one-off £100 bonus this month in recognition of the impressive results in an independent 2014 Residents’ Survey.

A recommendation for the bonus to be paid was made to a full council meeting last Thursday – but Labour councillors Sean Keating and Pamela Lonie called on councillors to pay each member of staff a £200 payment because they wouldn’t get the full amount after tax and national heath deductions.

In addition, the two human resources committee members also asked the borough council to ensure all part-time workers and casual/agency workers received the bonus.

Cllr Keating told the meeting: “The staff of this council have continued to provide an exceptional service year after year.

“My proposal is that part-timers get the same honorarium as everyone else. We can afford to do this, and there is nothing wrong with changing the arrangements in the way I am suggesting.”

Cllr Lonie added: “I would like to us to treat them all (our staff) as equals and pay them equally.”

But Conservative borough council leader Cllr Clive Sanders, who suggested the original bonus should be paid, told councillors: “We have to achieve a balance between what is right for us to show as a token of appreciation, and the fact it is council taxpayers’ money.”

And borough Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Gavin James added: “I think it is quite right to make a token gesture to staff. But there isn’t a bottomless pit of money, and if there was more money to spend, I would rather spend it on more staff.”

Thirty councillors out of the 55 in attendance voted against the motion to increase the payment from £100 to £200 and to award the same payment to part-time, casual and agency staff.

The one-off £100 bonus payment will cost the authority £61,000, and this will be found from business unit savings.