CITY councillors could be in line to receive an extra £137 a year under new plans.

If the recommendations were approved by Worcester City Council, the leader of the council would receive an extra £343 a year and the deputy leader would be in line to receive an extra £274.

The chairman of the major committees - such as policy and resources, communities and environment - would rise by £171 to £5,546.

The extra money comes from a number of recommendation by the independent remuneration panel (IRP) – the body tasked with recommending how much councillors should be paid.

The new list of recommended allowances comes after the council agreed in principle to switch from a cabinet to committee system in November 2016 and was ratified in May 2017.

Following the change in style, the IRP agreed to take another look at how much councillors and chairman of committees are paid once the new system had been up and running for at least a year.

Each political group leader at the council would receive £1,109 - an extra £34 a year.

The panel recommended to the city council a one per cent increase in 2017/18 meaning a councillor’s allowance would have gone up by £50 to £4,300 but that was ignored so the council could carry out the review.

Last year, the city council spent just under £150,000 on basic allowances for councillors and a further £67,000 was handed out in top-ups to councillors who held a key role such as committee chairman and vice chairman.

The combined total works out at £2.16 per person in the city.

Worcester City Council meets in full next Tuesday (February 17) to discuss and vote on the new allowance recommendations.