Agenda item

To consider the Scheme of Members’ Allowances and Members’ IT report.

The Chief Finance Officer presented the report on Scheme of Members’ Allowances and Members’ IT. The Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003 required Councils to establish an Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) and to have regard to the recommendations made in relation to the Members’ Allowances scheme. He advised of the IRP recommendations which included an uplift of £500 for the municipal year, the basic allowance to be linked to Local Government Pay Awards, changes to the Special Responsibility multipliers including the reduction of the multiplier for Vice-Chairman of the Council and Deputy Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and the changes to the procedure for the payment of Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA) during maternity or sick leave.  The recommendation with regards to the IT was that all Councillors be provided with devices for the purposes of carrying out Council duties and the sum of £400 to be taken from the basic allowance annually to cover support for the devices.

During discussion Members raised the following points:-

·         Concerns regarding the effect the increase would have on Councillors national insurance contributions and any benefits impact if they then have to pay £400 from the allowance for IT devices

·         Any roll out of IT devices should take place after the local election in May

·         Concern that there was no accidental damage of the devices

·         The maternity leave should cover shared parental leave

·         Whether sick leave  - was relevant as the Council already had procedures in place to cover these scenarios

·         Councillors already had multi IT devices for work and personal use, and so could their existing devices not be used for Council business?

·         Valued the input of the Vice-Chairman of the Council and Deputy Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny and did not think the SRA should be reduced

·         Group Leaders should meet to discuss the IT devices options.

It was proposed by Councillor Haines and seconded by Councillor Colclough that the Members Allowance increase be reduced to £100 instead of the increase of £500 and then £400 taken back for IT devices. This was then withdrawn.

It was proposed by Councillor Barker, seconded by Councillor G Hook and unanimously:-

RESOLVED :-

(1)          With effect from 2^nd May 2019 that:

(a) The Basic Allowance payable to all Councillors increases from £5,489 to £5,589 for the municipal year;

(b) As proposed by the IRP report CPI is removed and future increases in the Basic Allowance are linked to Local Government pay awards;

(c) The Special Responsibility multipliers remain as they are currently         are;

(d) The Carers’ Allowance is renamed the ‘Dependants’ Allowance’ and updated as detailed in the IRP report;

(e) Rates and terms for travel and subsistence claims are updated as detailed in the IRP report;

(f) The scheme is amended for the payment of Special Responsibility Allowance during maternity or sick leave as outlined in the IRP report subject to a variation to include share parental leave; and

(2)       The Councillors IT provision be considered by the Group Leaders the associated capital budget for 2019/20 remain to enable the matter to be resolved in 2019/20; and

(3)       That the members of the Independent Remuneration Panel be thanked for their report.