Christmas did not come early for councillors not receiving an allowance increase.

At an Epping Forest District Council meeting on December 20 officers presented proposals to fix members' allowances in place for the next year.

It will be the second year in a row the allowance has stayed the same at £4,300.

Ahead of next year's review however, officers will look at how the council compares to others to see if the figure needs tweaking.

The report brought to last week's meeting read: "The Council is therefore asked to note that the Panel intends to undertake a comprehensive benchmarking exercise amongst comparable local authorities as part of its review of the Members’ Allowances Scheme in 2019, to assess whether an inflationary increase in the level of Basic Allowance linked to recent local government pay awards, should be considered."