Agenda item

Review of Scheme of Members' Allowances 2022

Minutes:

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services presented the report on behalf of the Independent Remuneration Panel who had conducted a review of Members’ Allowances under The Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003. The Panel met three times and their recommendations and reasons for making the proposals are in the report.

 

Councillor Haysey thanked the Panel for their diligence and time spent looking at the Scheme of Allowances and providing recommendations that are fair and balanced. She thanked the Democratic Services Manager and Democratic Services Officer for supporting the Panel in their work. Councillor Haysey provided comments on each of the recommendations.

 

Councillor Haysey felt it was important that Members accepted Recommendation A, the 1% increase to the Basic Allowance. She said she appreciated that people are facing hardship but also needed to recognise the work that councillors did and the value put upon it. She said that the District elections were approaching and new councillors should be a valued part of the community. She said it was not a great deal of money and if individual councillors did not think it was appropriate to increase the allowance, they can choose not to accept it or donate the increase to charity. She said that Members postponed the increase last year and historically had accepted the same as the staff pay award which this year was 1.75%.

 

Councillor Haysey said that the majority group did not accept Recommendations B and C, the increase in Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Development Management Committee. She said that the Chairmen of all Committees did a great job and felt the current level of remuneration was correct. She also said the group did not accept Recommendation D to give £50 to each Development Management Committee for each meeting attended. Councillor Haysey said that she believed this would become an attendance allowance and would be difficult to administer. She added that all Members took their jobs seriously and the council should not differentiate between members across committees.

 

Councillor Haysey referred to Recommendation E and the decrease in SRA for the Audit and Governance Committee. She believed there had been a misunderstanding in the roles of the Audit and Governance Committee and the new Standards Committee. She said the amount of work undertaken by the Audit and Governance Committee that was now under the Standards Committee remit was minimal and therefore the reduction in SRA was not proportionate. She said the Council should not accept this recommendation.

 

Councillor Haysey referred to Recommendation F and the proposed SRA for the Standards Committee Chairman. She said this was the same as the Human Resources Committee Chairman and that committee met four times a year but the Standards Committee was proposed to meet twice a year. Therefore she proposed an amendment to recommendation F that the SRA for the Standards Chairman should be £2,431.

 

Councillor Haysey referred to Recommendation G and H and the increases to the Dependents Carers Allowance. She said she welcomed this increase and it recognised that Members with care responsibilities can become Members of the Council without being out of pocket. She urged Members to claim this allowance if they were entitled too.

 

Therefore Councillor Haysey proposed the following recommendations:

 

(a)       an increase of 1% from £5,375.04 to £5,428.79 in  the Basic Allowance, as shown at Appendix A;

(b)        a Special Responsibility Allowance of £2,421 for the Chairman of the proposed Standards Committee

(c)        an increase from £10.15 per hour to £25.00 per hour in Dependent Carer’s Allowance;

(d)        an increase from £9.00 per hour to £12.50 per hour in Childcare Allowance

Councillor Ruffles seconded the amended recommendations.

 

Councillor Goldspink requested a separate vote on Recommendation A.

 

Councillor E Buckmaster spoke in favour of a modest increase and said he agreed with the amendments from the Leader of the Council. He said the important thing was to ensure the Council was accessible and diverse in line with the Council’s objective to be inclusive. He said being a councillor was not just for the wealthy or those with good pensions and being a councillor does have an impact on other duties. He thought this was a move in the right direction to ensure that the Council does not become exclusive.

 

Councillor Goldspink thanked the Panel for their work in producing the report. She said that it was interesting that the Panel wanted to increase diversity on the Council. She felt that the Basic Allowance was a small sum and was not large enough to help those less well paid to afford to be councillors. She said that now was not the right time to be voting for an increase to Members’ allowances and said it would send the wrong message during a huge cost of living crisis. She said that the Council should not accept the increase.

 

Councillor Curtis referred to the increase in the carer’s allowance and he said he felt that an increase in the allowances should be at the Leader’s discretion.

 

Councillor Haysey said she had not been asked in the past to agree to a higher level of allowances but if there were special circumstances, it would be the right thing to do.

 

Having been proposed and seconded, the amended recommendations were put the meeting and declared CARRIED. The amended recommendations then became the substantive recommendations.

 

As requested by Councillor Goldspink, a separate vote was taken on Recommendation A. Having been proposed by Councillor Haysey and seconded by Councillor Ruffles, Recommendation A was put to the meeting and declared CARRIED.

 

RESOLVED – that (A) an increase of 1% from £5,375.04 to £5,428.79 in the Basic Allowance

 

Recommendations B-D, having been proposed by Councillor Haysey and seconded by Councillor Ruffles, were put to the meeting and declared CARRIED.

 

RESOLVED – that (B) a Special Responsibility Allowance of £2,421 for the Chairman of the proposed Standards Committee;
(C)     an increase from £10.15 per hour to £25.00 per  hour in Dependent Carer’s Allowance; and
(D)  an increase from £9.00 per hour to £12.50 per hour in Childcare Allowance
.

Supporting documents: