Powys County Councillors - what are they thinking?

When I went up to the newsagents to get my B&R this morning, I walked into the middle of a heated discussion about one of the front page headlines.
"Cabinet Members get 40% pay hike" it said. The lady behind the counter was furious. "We should with-hold 40% of our Council Tax until they give it back," she said. "Other people are having pay freezes, and cuts, and they're lining their pockets!"
Everyone in the shop agreed with her.
To do him credit, Gareth Ratcliffe is furious too, and is refusing the additional payment he's now entitled to as the deputy leader of the Conservative group.
The councillors who voted the money through are actually doling out the same money that went round 15 of them in the old ruling cabinet for 10 people in the new cabinet. The Felinfach councillor, Tony Thomas, said it was "modest in the extreme" and the Crickhowell councillor, John Morris (Lib Dem) said that it was because 10 people were being asked to do the work of 15.
Other councillors think it's scandalous.

At the same time as the Powys Independent Alliance and the Lib Dems (who run the council at the moment) were voting to allow themselves more money, plans to move the Library at Talgarth into the presently un-used basement of the Town Hall there are being discussed, to save money and to enhance the centre of the village. The move is being cautiously welcomed by people who campaigned to keep the Library open a few years ago.