DEPUTY Prime Minister Nick Clegg has refused to condemn Powys Liberal Democrat councillors who awarded themselves an inflation busting pay increase.

During a flying visit to Powys to launch his party's Welsh campaign for next month's county council elections, the Liberal Democrat leader also shied away from criticising party colleagues who had hiked council tax.

Mr Clegg praised Lib Dem councils for freezing council tax while his party, as junior coalition partners at Powys County Hall, raised council tax by 2.25 per cent this year.

Mr Clegg said he was unaware of the details of how the Powys Administration cabinet, in which his party partner the Powys Independent Alliance (PIA), had used a near £50,000 saving last April to increase allowances paid to cabinet members by 40 per cent.

Read the full story in this week's Brecon & Radnor Express - out now!