A WILTSHIRE councillor has donated the extra cash from an increase in his allowances to charity.

Councillor Mark Connolly, who is the Wiltshire councillor for Tidworth, presented the cheque for £120 to the town’s mayor Chris Franklin at a meeting last week.

It will go to the Mayor’s Charity and was the amount the councillor’s allowance was increased by.

Cllr Connolly said: “I gave this money as I thought it was wrong for councillors to vote for increases in their allowances when staff are being made redundant and having pay freezes.

“The council also has to make millions of pounds in savings and the increase in allowances does not help the situation.”

He added: “I hope that other councillors, especially those who will see increases in excess of 20 per cent in their special responsibility allowances, also do the right thing and either don’t accept their increase or give it to charity.”

Cllr Franklin said: “I am grateful to Mark Connolly, Tidworth’s Wiltshire councillor, for donating his allowance increase to the Mayor’s Charity.

“A charity set up to help people in Tidworth and Perham, it is acts like this that shows how councillors really feel for the community that they represent and live in.”