What county councillors cost last year (From Worcester News)

What county councillors cost last year

12:10pm Friday 10th July 2009 in

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WORCESTERSHIRE taxpayers handed over almost £850,000 to their county councillors in allowances and expenses last year.

New figures published by Worcestershire County Council show the authority’s 57 elected members collected a total of £845,657 between them for their various allowances and expenses during the 2008/09 year.

The total includes more than half a million pounds for the councillors’ basic allowances – each member gets a flat rate of about £9,000 a year – almost £300,000 on extra payments for councillors with special responsibilities, such as cabinet members and committee chairmen, and more than £36,000 in unspecified travel and subsistence expenses.

The overall figure represents an increase of almost five per cent on the previous year’s £806,077 bill, and means councillors’ costs have risen by 14 per cent in just three years.

This is because members’ allowances have been hiked every year on the recommendation of an independent panel – though this year councillors did agree a total freeze.

A council spokesman said: “The rate of allowances are based on recommendations by an independent remuneration panel, which takes into account a variety of factors – such as the number of hours worked, levels of responsibility carried, and rates paid by other authorities. The re-ports and decisions are publicly available.”

The spokesman also defended the need to pay councillors an allowance at all, stating: “It is contrary to the basic idea of local democracy that the recruitment of councillors should be limited to a restricted group who can afford to provide an open-ended commitment with little or no remuneration.”

There are no further details of the £36,000 of expenses claims in the newly published documents, which give only totals for each member.

As councillors are allowed to claim the cost of travelling to County Hall, it is no surprise the biggest expenses claimers were councillors who live far from Worcester but work at County Hall most days.

The biggest expenses claimers in 2008/09 were leader George Lord (who lives in Bromsgrove), cabinet member Liz Eyre (Broadway) and deputy-leader Adrian Hardman (from Bredon).

Coun Eyre’s claim for £2,825, although the second-highest in the authority, represents a reduction of almost a quarter on her previous year’s total of £3,653. She said: “I made a concerted effort to do less mileage and so claim less expenses. I’ve reorganised my workload so I don’t travel to County Hall for a single meeting. I’ve done more work at home, often at my own expense. I’m delighted if I’ve saved the taxpayer some money.”

The figures also show that former Conservative councillor Debbie-Hamilton-Jones, who only attended three committee meetings all year, did not claim any expenses – but did accept her £9,000 basic allowance.