I believe you, but what I'm saying is that it isn't just Labour councils which do that. I live in an area which is almost 100% Conservative. There are a few LibDems and the Town Council is Independent at the moment. My County Councillor is an Independent, but more like a NIMBY Conservative to be honest.
Lord Hanningfield (Conservative), the former leader of Essex County Council, was jailed for House of Lords fraud. He was let off fraud against the County Council (ahem!).
The scandal with areas like yours is that it's obviously quite poor. This is a much wealthier area on average, so most people can afford to make up shortfalls. We hardly have any buses, we have no police station nor hospital, the County Council has just slashed school transport funding by a £1 million. Schools are bursting at the seams. There are no council funded nurseries or day care centres for the elderly. The meals on wheels service has been scrapped. Home care funding has been reduced by 25%. There is no available council housing. The list goes on.
And, yes, the councillors voted themselves big increases and established a cabinet system, so the the leading councillors are paid even more. And they're Conservative!