Agenda item

This report provides Full Council with an opportunity to consider the recommendations of a review of the Members’ Allowances Scheme following a review undertaken by the Council’s Independent Remuneration Panel.

Members considered the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP). Members had been granted a dispensation by the then Monitoring Officer to allow all Members to take part in this item.

John Cade, Chairman of the IRP presented the report and highlighted the following points, along with the fourteen recommendations of the Panel:

• Thanks were offered to those members that gave evidence during the ‘evidence gathering’ session that took place on 18 November 2025.
• In the 2022 review, increased allowances had been proposed for the Chairmen of Governance and Audit, Licensing and Employment Committees; these increases were not taken forward by Full Council at that time. However, the IRP believed these recommendations were still valid and had reiterated them.
• The mini review into allowances that took place in 2023 considered the special responsibility allowance for the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Standards Committee. It was proposed that this allowance increased from the agreed 2023 level.
• The IRP were asked to look at the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Council’s allowance. Budget was currently provided for these positions, but it was not classed as a special responsibility allowance. The IRP had recognised that chairing a Full Council meeting was a demanding task.
• It was open to Council to decide whether it was appropriate to backdate any of the proposed increased allowances.

Members made the following points during debate:

• Deciding on the correct level of member allowances was difficult; whilst some Councillors would be financially secure, some would be in receipt of benefits, and therefore any backdated allowance could make a big difference.
• Whilst the proposed Planning Chairman allowance increase appeared to be large, in effect it meant that the allowance ‘caught up’ with other positions, given the amount of work a Planning Chairman is expected to do.
• It was important to consider future levels of allowances rather than backdating them.
• One Member shared information from comparable authorities in relation to allowances.
• One Member considered it to be the wrong time to increase allowances; the optics were bad.

Thirteen of the fourteen printed recommendations of the Panel were proposed and seconded, with the only change being to the ‘effective date’ of the proposals.

Therefore, having previously been proposed and seconded, and following a vote, it was AGREED:

DECISION

That Full Council accept the following recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel:

1. That the Basic Allowance and Special Responsibility Allowances for the Leader, Deputy Leader, Cabinet Members, Overview and Scrutiny Chairs, together with the Opposition Allowance, remain the same.

2. That the Special Responsibility Allowance for the Planning Committee Chairman be increased to a factor of 1.20 of the Basic Allowance.

3. That the Special Responsibility Allowance for the Governance and Audit Committee Chairman be increased to a factor of 1.00 of the Basic Allowance.

4. That the Special Responsibility allowance for the Licensing Committee Chairman be increase to a factor of 0.80 of the Basic Allowance.

5. That the Special Responsibility allowance for the Employment Committee Chairman be increased to a factor of 0.80 of the Basic Allowance.

6. That the Special Responsibility allowance for the Standards Committee Chairman be increased to a factor of 0.60 of the Basic allowance.

7. That a new Special Responsibility Allowance be provided for the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Council in recognition of their responsibility around chairing the Council meeting. This should be set as a factor of 1.20 of the Basic Allowance for the Chairman with the Vice-Chairman receiving 0.33 of that allowance.

8. That the Vice-Chairman of a Committee continues to receive 0.33 of the Special Responsibility Allowance for the respective Chairman.

9. That allowances continue to be index-linked to any pay award to your Council employees.

10. That the payment to the Independent Person (Standards) be index-linked.

11. That the childcare and careers’ allowances be the national living wage per hour with no cap.

12. That the travel and allowances scheme be amended to provide for an additional 5p per mile, per passenger when the driver is carrying fellow Councillors on a business journey.

13. That a motorcycle allowance of 24p per mile and a bicycle allowance of 20p per mile be introduced

It was proposed and seconded that the changes were to be effective from the start of the next financial year.