Allerdale councillors voted to give themselves a pay rise, despite a call to show solidarity to people in the borough who were struggling financially.

Members of the council met to discuss the recommendations of an independent panel following its annual review of allowances.

The panel proposed that the basic allowance payable to all councillors - £3,066.65 - should be increased by £100.

Councillor Bill Finlay, leader of the council's independent group, called on colleagues to consider the number of their constituents struggling amid the increasing cost of living and the strain of public spending cuts.

He added: "I believe we as their elected representatives should do what little we can to show solidarity and I therefore propose we should do nothing to increase our allowances for 2017-18."

The proposal was seconded by fellow independent councillor Marion Fitzgerald but was voted against.

Councillor Peter Bales, chairman of the development panel, argued that the councillors were actually voting to take a pay cut, as they were agreeing to scrap an extra allowance they could claim for broadband.

That allowance of £18 a month entitled members to claim an extra £216 per year.

But the independent panel, when considering the move, said take up of the broadband payment was low and recommended its removal as most homes now had broadband as standard.

The changes will come into effect from April.

The payments to the leader, deputy leader and other executive members - £21,000, £9,972.97 and £5,441.42 respectively - remained unchanged.

The only role of extra responsibility that will see an overall allowance increase is that of the chairman of the development panel, whose allowance will rise from £4,081.07 to £4,500.

The independent panel said the workload of the development panel chairman was similar to that of an executive member, warranting the increase, but the accountability was lower.

It added that the workload was likely to increase because of Government aims to meet housing need through large-scale housing developments.

The payments to other committee chairmen and to the mayor and deputy mayor also remain unchanged.

The panel recommended that the basic allowance for all councillors should be reviewed annually with a view to increasing it by another £100 each year for five years.