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Councillor gives up expenses to clean toilets

Gloucestershire County councillor Mike Sztymiak is to give up his expenses to help pay for Tewkesbury's toilets to be cleaned.

The newly-elected member will hand over £8,800, the basic annual allowance which county councillors can claim, to help the on-going bid to improve public toilets in the town.

He hopes to channel all the money to the cause by setting up a trust fund in order to avoid paying tax.

Councillors are paid the money in monthly instalments unless it goes to charity, in which case it is paid directly to the cause and is not subject to taxation.

Coun Sztymiak had promoted the idea of handing over his expenses to the toilets project while he was campaigning to be elected on an independent ticket to the county council's Tewkesbury ward.

Having been elected on Thursday, along with Coun Vernon Smith (Con, Tewkesbury), he says he will honour that pledge.

He said: "It's all part of my commitment to provide front line services to the public. The money will go towards providing some decent cleaning of the new toilets planned for Gloucester Road and Spring Gardens.
"The town council is trying to take them over but hasn't got a huge amount of money. This will help it provide better or more regular servicing of the toilets."

Coun Sztymiak, who is also a town and borough councillor, lives in Twixtbears, Tewkesbury, and works full-time at Capita in Bishop's Cleeve. He has five children, including two young ones.

He said: "You shouldn't be in it for profit. I entered politics to serve the public. I do it because I enjoy it."

"I like standing up for people and representing them. That's why I do it. I would do it for nothing."

He said the Westminster expenses scandal had put politicians in a bad light but he said it was unfair to tar them all with same brush.

He said: "A lot of councillors are not in it for themselves. They're in it to improve the public good. The public need to be reassured of that."

Jimmy Fitzpatrick is leading the town council's bid, working with the borough council, to get the two new toilets installed by November.

He was impressed with Coun Sztymiak's pledge and said: "Probably, the majority of councillors wouldn't give up that income to help the town."

This article appeared in This is Gloucestershire 10th June 2009