COUNCILLORS in Torbay have frozen their allowances.

An independent review recommended some increases, and some decreases, resulting in an overall saving of just over £3,000.

A Liberal Democrat motion to accept the decreases but not the increases was rejected.

An Independent and Labour amendment was to adopt the panel's overall proposals but reduce the mayor's allowance to £46,000 and increase the allowance for the overview co-ordinator to £8,000 in line with the deputy mayor, and the harbour and audit committee chairman to £4,000.

They made it clear nobody had to claim the full amount proposed.

The amendment was lost and the Tories' proposed freeze agreed.