BOLTON Council spent more than £800,000 on allowances and expenses for councillors last year.

Data shows that while many councils across the country have increased the amount that elected members are paid and can claim — Bolton has driven down such costs.

The latest figures for 2014/15 show that the authority forked out £815,047 in total on members’ allowances and expenses — including a £29,782 figure being paid to leader Cliff Morris.

That bill has reduced by just more than £37,000 from the £852,062 that was paid out by the council in 2013/14.

The authority currently pays out a basic sum of £11,082 to all elected councillors, with a range of special responsibility allowances (SRA) being paid to members with different portfolios and opposition leaders.

The data — which has been collected by the Taxpayers' Alliance — shows that the authority’s latest bill ranks it somewhere in the middle of the list of Greater Manchester Authorities.

Neighbouring boroughs such as Wigan (£1,157,948), Salford (£969,176) and Oldham (£941,000) all spent more on councillor costs last year.

A spokesman for the authority said that as well as making large budget cuts, the council had worked to reduce the amount paid to elected members.

He said: “Since 2010, the council has made savings of more than £100 million and we have reduced the amount paid in allowances to councillors too.

"We will continue to look for opportunities to make savings in future years.”

Despite the savings the council has made, Bolton’s Liberal Democrat group has repeatedly called on the council to review and lower the amount of allowances paid.

The group has also suggested that the total number of councillors should be cut by a third to save money.

Lib Dem leader Cllr Roger Hayes said: “I think the level of responsibility for councillors has gone down since these amounts were brought in — we now have very little to do with housing in the borough and nothing to do with education.

“I think the fact that over half of the council get a special responsibility allowance is a joke.”

Cllr Hayes said he would include his own special responsibility allowance in the list of allowances that there was “little justification for".