THE new Leader of Wrexham Council, Neil Rogers, has pledged to take less than a third of his allowances in a bid to forge a closer relationship with the people of Wrexham.

Cllr Rogers, who is entitled to draw allowances totalling £42,000, has decided to make do with the average salary of manual workers employed by Wrexham Council, which is around £13,000.

He said: 'When I was Leader of the Council last time I didn't take the full amount I was entitled to and I've decided not to take it again. I've given it a considerable amount of thought and I feel I want to re-engage with the people of Wrexham, so I will only take the average wage of the council's manual workers.

'I've never been involved in politics for the money. It's a matter of my own principles, but it is a matter for each individual to decide. This is a full-time job but I recognise many people in Wrexham are living on the minimum wage and I want to build up a relationship with the people.'

Cllr Rogers' surprise announcement came just days after a row in the Chambers which resulted in the Forward Wales Party accusing the Labour group of making a pact with the Conservatives and some independents to hold on to power - promising them committee chairs in return.

Cllr Dave Bithell, of Johnstown, the only councillor for Forward Wales, said: 'It's very worrying to see the council in such a mess so soon - the main parties seemed more interested in scrabbling for power and extra allowances than sorting out what is needed for the people of the area.

'It doesn't surprise me at all to see Labour climb into bed with the Tories to cling on to power. After all, they've been implementing Tory policies for years.'

Cllr Rogers denied the allegations of a pact and said: 'There were discussions with all the groups about alliances. There are only 19 councillors in the Labour group so we haven't got the numbers to have overall control. Various groups supported what we were trying to do - the Tories supported some things and not others but there was no pact.

'I want no more dillydallying - we need to get on and make progress. We will be pursuing sensible policies and I have lots of ideas. We need to deal with school improvements, community wardens, waste and recycling and I'm very keen to keep Wrexham Football Club at the Racecourse ground.'