Agenda item

To consider the report of the head of legal and democratic services and the recommendations of the Joint Independent Remuneration Panel on a revised councillors’ allowances scheme to run from 1 April 2017 (attached).

Council considered the report of the head of legal and democratic services and the recommendations of the Joint Independent Remuneration Panel on a revised councillors’ allowances scheme to run from 1 April 2017. 

Mr Cotton moved and Mr Turner seconded a motion to accept the recommendations of the Joint Independent Remuneration panel subject to:

a.            no membership threshold on the payment of the special responsibility allowance to the Leader of the main opposition group;

b.            the addition of a special responsibility allowance of £1,390 for the chairman of the Community Grants Panel;

c.            the addition of a special responsibility allowance of £1,390 for the chairman of the Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committee;

Council agreed that the leader of the opposition fulfils a valuable role irrespective of the number of members of the group and as such there should not be a membership threshold on the payment of a special responsibility allowance. The role of the chairman of the Community Grants Panel is responsible for the council’s high profile revenue and capital grants schemes which are of great importance to communities within the district. The panel considers multiple rounds of grants applications and is responsible for bringing forward recommendations on and implementing changes to our grants policies and as such the post of chairman should attract a special responsibility allowance. The post of chairman of Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committeeshould be treated as one of the council’s main committees. In light of the unitary bid there will be a need to review the role of the committee to include wider local government reorganisation issues. If the unitary bid proposals proceed, this will include implementation issues such as the role of the area executive boards.

Mr Cotton, leader of the council, advised that officers had removed information from the website that provided details of individual councillor feedback. Officers would discuss the matter with South East Employers and ensure any comments provided at future reviews remained confidential.

Mrs Murphy, deputy leader of the council, stated that she intended to waive part of her deputy leader’s allowance in the current financial year in order to meet the cost of the additional special responsibility allowances set out in b and c of the above motion.

RESOLVED: to

1.         accept the recommendations of the Joint Independent Remuneration Panel subject to the following changes:

a.    no membership threshold on the payment of the special responsibility allowance to the Leader of the main opposition group;

b.    the addition of a special responsibility allowance of £1,390 for the chairman of the Community Grants Panel;

c.    the addition of a special responsibility allowance of £1,390 for the chairman of the Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committee;

2.         to agree that the additional allowances be met from contingency if they cannot be met from existing budgets;

3.         authorise the head of legal and democratic services to finalise a councillors’ allowances scheme based on the decision in 1 and to make any consequential amendments to the constitution;

4.         agree that the revised scheme should apply from 1 April 2017 but that any reductions will take effect from 19 May 2017; and

5.       thank the members of the Independent Remuneration Panel for their work in reviewing the councillors’ allowance scheme.