Councillors allowances review 2017

[megilleland]

From Herefordshire Council News - 12th May 2017

The Report of the Herefordshire Independent Remuneration Panel will be considered at next week's Council meeting.
 

Quote

Herefordshire Council has published the Report of the Herefordshire Independent Remuneration Panel, making recommendations on Councillors allowances, to support the new constitution, which is due to be considered by Full Council on Friday 19 May.

The independent panel has reviewed existing arrangements and made recommendations on the allowances that may be payable. The report includes analysis of allowances paid by similar unitary councils across the country for comparison. The council must have regard to the report when making or amending the scheme. Any decision will be taken by a vote at Full Council.

The recommendations are based on the principles of the Councillor’s Commission, which aim to encourage people from a wide range of backgrounds to serve as local Councillors, to compensate Councillors for their work and have regard to the full range of commitment and complexity of their roles, while providing transparency and observing benchmarks.

The recommendations made by the panel include:

Increasing the basic annual allowance that all Councillors received from £7,400 to £8,489 (14.7% increase - 53 councillors @  £1,089 = £57,717 increase )
 

That the Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for the role of the Leader of the Council be set at 4 x the new Basic Allowance (£33,956 per year)
 

That the SRA for the role of Cabinet Member be set at 1.75 x new Basic Allowance (£14,856 per year).
 

That the SRA for the role of Chairman of the Council, Scrutiny Committee Chairman, and Chairman of Planning and Regulatory Committee is set at 1.25 x new Basic Allowance (£10,611 per year).
 

That the SRA for the role of Chairman of Licensing Sub-Committee, Chairman of Audit and Governance Committee, and the Councils Member representative on the Adoption Panel be set at 0.75 x new Basic Allowance (£6,366 per year).
 

That the SRA for the role of the Cabinet Support Member remain as an allowance of up to 50% of the Cabinet member allowance, subject to the total budget currently allocated for individual cabinet members not being exceeded.
 

That the SRA for the role of Group Leader remain unchanged at £1,634 (plus £124 per group member) provided group membership exceeds 10% of the Councils total membership.
 

That the current scheme in relation to payment of no more than one SRA per Councillor (with the exception of the Group Leaders SRA) remain unchanged.

There are further recommendations on childcare and dependants careers scheme, travel and subsistence scheme, which remain unchanged, although it is recommended that claims be made within a year of the spend.

 

Meanwhile Matt Whittaker, chief economist at the Resolution Foundation, said:

 

Quote

Pay is now expected to be £320 lower this year than was predicted just three months ago, and more than £900 lower than the Bank thought this time last year.

The pay squeeze were currently experiencing is set to continue throughout the year, resulting in a renewed phase of living standards stagnation over the coming years.

 

Nice to know we are all in this together! As only 8 councillors in the Cabinet appear to make all the decisions and never listen to the public and ratepayers, why not get rid of the other 45 councillors and save a possible £382,005. They can then run the authority as a dictatorship. Oh, they already do!

[twowheelsgood]

Courtesy of IOC blogging live from the meeting;

 

The outcome is that all cabinet members get additional £3,000. Tony Johnson as leader of the council gets an extra £4,500, while everyday councillors get an increase of less than £2 a month - which equates the basic allowance to well below the minimum wage, let alone the living wage that the council signed up to for all its staff and contractors.

 

Ha, I bet those Tory foot soldiers who voted as they were told to feel pretty cheated at this pittance increase. Remind me again, what is the point of ward councillors these days, save for voting on how they are told? Other than that, they seem increasingly sidelined and largely impotent.

 

After the meeting, Tory Chairman Brian Wilcox took himself and his guests for a nice lunch laid on in the Bishop's Palace. Chin-chin!

[Glenda Powell]

I see the ward  councillor for Newton Farm has been promoted to deputy chairman of the council. But I have been told tonight the position had been offered to 7 people in front of him and they declined  the position.

[Denise Lloyd]

Sinful and just sheer greed.   Without working it out just how much does T Johnson our esteemed leader now get each year in total? 

[twowheelsgood]

TJ's bunce is increased by £4500 (15.9%) from £29418 to £33918 - the second highest remuneration in all of the English Authorities. Ker-ching indeed.

 

Again, according to IOC, in the supposedly un-whipped vote, every single Tory councillor present (26) voted in favour.

[Denise Lloyd]

TWG just to clarify I take it that figure of £33918 is it plus expenses?

[twowheelsgood]

My understanding is that expenses are a separate issue, reclaimed as they are expended, plus of course all those nice laptops and iPads and printers and so on.

[Glenda Powell]

Denise, according to Herefordshire Council news desk, Cllr Johnson as Leader of the council gets £29,692 plus travelling expenses. which would be a vast sum as he doesn't live in Herefordshire.

[twowheelsgood]

£29418 according to the papers presented to Council - heaven forbid they should liaise with the news desk.

[Aylestone Voice]

Denise, according to Herefordshire Council news desk, Cllr Johnson as Leader of the council gets £29,692 plus travelling expenses. which would be a vast sum as he doesn't live in Herefordshire.

His home address as listed on the Council website is at WR13 6EP. This might be a Worcester post code but which is an address in Colwall which is in Herefordshire