Issue - meetings

24 January 2024

Pay Award and Review of Allowances

There was concern that the consistent rejection of recommendations to increase Member allowances were eroding the base of the allowance and causing the Council to fall behind other authorities in terms of remuneration for members.  There was concern that since 2015 the only increases in allowances had been a 2% rise in 2020 and 2% in 2022.

Discussion progressed on to the possibility of a review to address the new system of governance, the change this had made to roles and how this related to workloads for Councillors.  It was agreed that allowances for subsistence and travel would form a vital part of the review. 

There was also a discussion regarding the Business Manager role and whether this should be extended to each political group.  It was noted that to be officially recognised, a Political Group has to have at least three Members and that the Business Manager provided an essential administrative function, in particular, ensuring the attendance of Members at meetings, including the arrangement of substitutes.

A debate ensued about the real concern that the Panel had, that in ignoring previous recommendations, allowances for Members had been continually lowered in real terms and were no longer reflective of the valuable service provided by Councillors.  The Panel wished to emphasise that higher figures than the figure of 4% recommended by Officers had been discussed and seriously considered. 

          Recommended to Council that:

1.       An increase of 4% be applied to Member’s allowances

2.       A review be conducted to consider the roles and responsibilities of Councillors and for these to be benchmarked with other local authorities.

3.       The Business Manager role be extended to apply to all recognised political groups.

The recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel were debated, including the recommendation for a 4% rise in allowances.

          RESOLVED that:

1.       An increase of 4% be applied to Member’s allowances

2.       A review be conducted to consider the roles and responsibilities of Councillors and for these to be benchmarked with other local authorities.

3.       The Business Manager role be extended to apply to all recognised political groups.