A BID to stop Wiltshire Councillors from taking up increased allowance failed this week.

The vote followed a sometimes heated extraordinary meeting at County Hall on Tuesday where a motion to rescind November’s decision in favour of a 22 per cent rise for cabinet members and one per cent increase for councillors was on the table.

Council leader Jane Scott, who had already announced she would not take up her higher allowance, voted with the rest of the Conservatives against the move.

A total of 24 mainly Liberal Democrat councillors backed it although the Lib Dem leader Jon Hubbard, who chairs two committees, defended his rise.

The increases provoked anger when they were first announced late last year, prompting a 2,673-signature petition and criticism from Secretary of State for Local Government Eric Pickles.