Agenda item

The Chairman again welcomed Mr Richard Quirk, Chairman of the Independent Remuneration Panel to the meeting and invited him to introduce the report.

The process undertaken and the factors considered, in making the recommendations, were detailed in the report. 

Three recommendations had arisen from the Panel’s work these being:

(1)    That the Basic Allowance Payable to all Members be increased by 5.67% (£382.73) in line with the increase received by the lowest paid staff (From £6750  to £7,132.73).

This equated to £7.36 per week or £1.51 per day.  Consideration had been given to the Authority’s financial position but also recognised that remuneration was there to ensure no one was prevented from being a Councillor due to out-of-pocket expenses.

(2)    That Vice Chairs of Governance & Audit Committee, Overview & Scrutiny and Corporate Policy & Resources Committee to each receive the full Special Responsibility Allowance for the role (£1,537) as opposed to the current sharing arrangement.

This recommendation had been made the previous year but rejected by Council. The Panel considered all Vice-Chairman should be paid the same rate and any deviation from that was a political decision as such the recommendation had again been made. 

(3)    That the wording of the Member Allowance Scheme should be updated to provide additional clarity for both Members and Officers.

The Panel had been made aware that the prefacing wording of the Allowance Scheme had not been reviewed for a considerable length of time and therefore had considered and been supportive of suggestive updates presented by the 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer which served to provide additional clarity.

Debate ensued with a Member of the Opposition indicating they could not be supportive of recommendation two.  Questioning the rationale for there being two such positions, particularly given the size of the Council and the Committees in question. But in the event two Vice-Chairmen were in post, she believed the allowance should be shared, moving such as an amendment.

A Member currently appointed to one such position outlined why the decision had been made to have two vice-chairmen.  It had allowed Members with family and/or work commitments to undertake roles that they might not otherwise be able to, and for this reason they currently shared the allowance.

The Monitoring Officer advised Members that no amendment was required, given it was a direct negative of the motion, Members simply needed to vote the motion down, if it was moved and seconded, or Members could simply not move the recommendation and the status quo would remain, with the allowance currently being on a shared basis.

The Leader of the Council along with other Members thanked Mr Quirk for the report, indicating the rationale on which the increase in basic allowance was one that could be accepted. General discussion ensued with Members generally being of the view that they should have no role in the setting of their allowances, speaking of the conflict it often brought, but acknowledged it was a legislative requirement.  It was further acknowledged that needing to be able to attract and retain a diverse set of Councillors was important and the Chairman of Remuneration Panel was supportive of the view that current remuneration did not reflect the level of work undertaken and effort Councillors gave.

A number of other Members spoke against recommendation 2 and the wider principle of dualled Vice-Chairmanships, for this reason the Chairman indicated the recommendations would be taken individually.

Recommendation 1 was proposed and seconded and on being put to the vote was CARRIED unanimously.

With there being no appetite for recommendation 2 and no one willing to propose or second the content, the recommendation fell and the status quo and sharing of the allowance would remain.

Recommendation 3 was proposed and seconded and on being put to the vote was CARRIED unanimously.

On that basis it was RESOLVED that, with effect from 1 April 2025

(a)    the Basic Allowance Payable to all Members be increased by 5.67% (£382.73) in line with the increase received by the lowest paid staff (From £6750  to £7,132.73);

(b)    the wording of the Member Allowance Scheme (Paragraphs 1-11 be updated as Shown in Appendix 1 to the report to provide additional clarity for both Members and Officers.