Report by Director of Resources

The Director of Resources submitted a report recommending that the Council considered the findings of the Independent Remuneration Panel and adopted a scheme of Councillors’ Allowances for the financial year 2019/20.

The report stated that the Independent Remuneration Panel met annually to consider a scheme of allowances and pensions for councillors and to make recommendations to Council.  The report noted that the Panel was currently conducting a full review of Councillors’ Allowances and would submit the findings from its review to a future meeting of the Council for consideration.  In the meantime, the Panel recommended that the total budget for Councillors’ allowances and the levels of allowances for all councillors should stay at the same level as set for 2018/19.  The overall budget should therefore be £448,597 in respect of councillors’ allowances; basic allowance for all councillors should remain set at £8,220 per annum; and the remainder of the budget should be split between the Leader, Deputy Leader and recipients of special responsibility allowances as set out in Section 3 of the report.  The report had appended the Remuneration Panel’s Interim Findings at Appendix A.

The following motion was moved by Councillor Lovelock and seconded by Councillor Page and CARRIED:

Resolved –

(1)           That it be noted that the Independent Remuneration Panel was currently conducting a full review of Councillors’ Allowances and would submit the findings from its review to a future meeting of the Council for consideration;

(2)           That, pending the outcome of the Independent Remuneration Panel’s review and its consideration by Council, the scheme for Councillors’ Allowances for 2019/20 remain unchanged from that agreed for 2018/19, as set out below:

Interim Recommendations of Remuneration Panel

That the recommendations of the independent Remuneration Panel, in respect of the scheme of allowances to be paid by the authority to Councillors for the financial year 2019-2020, be accepted and approved as follows:

(1)     That, for 2019-20, the total sum for the payment of Basic and Special Responsibility Allowances to councillors remain at the same level as set for 2018-19 at £448,597;

(2)     That, within this total sum, the provision for the payment of Basic Allowance to all councillors remain at £378,125; and the Basic Allowance paid to individual councillors remain the same at £8,220 a year;

(3)     That the Special Responsibility Allowances payments remain the same, as follows:

(a)     the amount paid to the Leader to be £7,004;

(b)     the amount paid to the Deputy Leader to be £5,722;

(c)      the amount paid to SRA Tier 1 to be £3,816;

(d)     the amount paid to SRA Tier 2 to be £2,147;

(e)     the amount paid to SRA Tier 3 to be £1,074.

No councillor shall receive more than one Special Responsibility Allowance;

(4)     That the existing categorisation of tiers should remain unchanged, as follows:

·                Tier 1 to be paid to theLead Councillors and to the Leader of the main opposition Group (9 Councillors currently in receipt in 2018/19);

·                Tier 2 to be paid to the Chairs of Committees and the Leader of the other political groups (9 Councillors and one independent member currently in receipt in 2018/19);

·                Tier 3 to be paid to Vice-Chairs of Committees and other councillors carrying out other activities in relation to the discharge of the authority’s functions as require the commitment of equivalent time and effort as for other categories of activity which would qualify for Special Responsibility Allowance under Paragraph 5(1)(i) of the Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003 and to the independent person appointed in accordance with Section 28 of the Localism Act 2011 to carry out the functions specified in that Act in relation to the Members’ Code of Conduct and Local Standards Committee (4 Councillors and one independent person currently in receipt in 2018/19);

(5)     That the 2019-20 arrangements for the payment of Dependant Carers’ Allowance be paid in line with the living wage, currently as follows:

(a)     Up to £8.75 per hour for childcare for up to 15 hours a week

(b)     Up to £8.75 per hour towards the cost of a care attendant for an elderly or disabled relative (including a disabled child) for up to 15 hours a week

The person providing the care may not be a close relative defined as spouse, partner (opposite or same sex cohabitees), parents, children, brothers, sisters, grandparents and grandchildren.  The paid care attendant must sign a receipt to show that they have cared for the dependant during the hours claimed for;

(6)     That, subject to (8) below, the level of subsistence allowances, with the exception of overnight subsistence, remain the same as officers receive.  The allowances are currently:

(7)     That the level of travel allowances be set as the same as officers receive, as follows:

·                Travel by councillor’s own motor vehicle – 45 pence per mile

·                Travel by councillor’s own bicycle – 37 pence per mile

·                Travel by councillor’s own motorcycle – 40.9 pence per mile

·                Bus travel – cost of the ordinary fare, cheap fare or portion of any weekly ticket;

(8)     That the subsistence limits referred to in (6) above be exceeded in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the Monitoring Officer, e.g. to enable a Councillor and an officer attending a conference to stay at the same accommodation, subject to there being sufficient budget provision;

(9)     That provision for Co-optees’ Allowances are payable solely to non-councillor members of the Standards Committee attending meetings of the Committee or any Sub-Committee set up by the Committee as part of its process of assessing, investigating and hearing complaints about Councillors; the allowances to be paid at the daily rate equivalent of the Councillors’ Basic Allowance; the Monitoring Officer to be authorised to settle the rate to be paid on each occasion;

(10)    That the salary sacrifice schemes available to Council staff also be made available to Councillors.