ALLOWANCES that are awarded to elected members of Wiltshire Council have risen by over 50 per cent since 2009, while council workers across the country face a third year of pay freezes.
Councillors’ allowances are currently set at £11,403, up from last year’s allowance of £10,638.96. And allowances will rise again in 2013 by 7.2 percent to £12,167, well above the inflation rate of 4 per cent, and a 51 per cent increase from 2009 when councillors received £8,037.19.
Wiltshire Council pays a basic allowance to each elected councillor. The allowance is not linked to the amount of work they do or meetings they attend.
Wiltshire councillors can choose not to take the basic allowance by giving written notice to the council. However, according to Wiltshire Council’s figures from last year, all Wiltshire councillors took the basic allowance.
The latest national breakdown of increases has been published by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which found 32 councils raised allowances between the financial year 2010/11, the Coalition’s first year in power, and 2011/12.
In contrast, in February of this year the Local Government Association announced that 1.6 million local government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will have their pay frozen for a third consecutive year.
Cllr John Noeken, cabinet member for resources said, “Members’ allowances have to be considered by an independent panel and this is separate from how staff terms and conditions are set. This panel recommends what the allowances should be according to responsibilities and workloads – comparisons with other similar authorities are also taken into account.
“Their recommendations then go to full council for acceptance. In Wiltshire Council’s case an independent panel in 2009 recommended that all councillors be paid an annual allowance of £12,167 to be updated in line with a national indicator each year, however the full council felt the amount was too high and to be paid at once would have sent the wrong message to our staff and the public at large.
“Instead the full council decided to phase in the allowances over four years, culminating in the recommended allowance of £12,167 being paid in the final year ahead of the next scheduled unitary elections in 2013. This allowance together with all other allowances, would be much higher had the original recommendation been accepted.”
A Wiltshire Council spokesperson said, “In 2009, after unitary elections, an independent panel recommended a scheme of allowances for Wiltshire Council members until 2013. The panel assessed the workloads of councillors and compared them to similar authorities. The original recommendation was for councillors to be paid an annual allowance of £12,167, to be updated in line with a national indicator each year, however the council felt the amount was too excessive.
“It was decided to phase in the allowances over four years culminating in the recommended allowance of £12,167 being paid in the final year ahead of the next scheduled unitary elections in 2013. This allowance would be much higher had the original recommendation been accepted.”
