Issue - meetings

Report of the Council's Independent Remuneration Panel on Members' Allowances for 2021/22

Meeting: 29/07/2021 - Council (Item 22)

22 Report of the Council's Independent Remuneration Panel on Members' Allowances for 2021/22

To receive the Report and Recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel.

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Place introduced the report of the Council’s Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP), which set out proposals on the Members Allowances Scheme for 2021/22. The IRP’s report contained 22 recommendations for Council to consider, as detailed on pages 3 and 4 of Annex 1 to the covering report.

The IRP recommended that adopted changes apply from 1 April 2021, with applicable elements applied retrospectively back to this date, apart from changes to the Mayor’s and Deputy Mayor’s Allowances, which would apply from the day after Annual Council (28 May 2021).

Councillor Harrison moved and Councillor Essex seconded a motion to defer the item until the next meeting of the Council, to allow all Members to attend in person and participate in the vote, however upon a vote the motion to defer was not carried.

A Notice of Amendment to the recommendations was published in the addendum, which proposed a freeze to Members’ allowances listed under recommendations 1 – 8 and 10 – 14. Councillor Brunt moved and Cllr Schofield seconded a motion to adopt the amended recommendations and it was RESOLVED that:

1.    The amended recommendations, as within the Notice of Amendment, be adopted.

2.    That the Interim Head of Paid Service be authorised to make any necessary changes to the Members’ Allowance Scheme for 2021/22 (approved under Recommendation 1 above) arising from any amendment or non-adoption of the IRP’s recommendations.

3.    That the effective date of any changes for all allowances, except for the Mayor’s and Deputy Mayor’s allowances, is 1 April 2021, and that the effective date of any changes relating to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor’s allowances is 28 May 2021.

4.    That the IRP be thanked for its report.

Clerk’s note: The allowance under Recommendation 1 was incorrectly reported as £5680. The correct figure for 2020/21 was £5670. As the intention of adopted recommendations under the Notice of Amendment was to freeze the basic allowance at the 2020/21 rate, the correct 2020/21 rate of £5670 will be applied for the 2021/22 municipal year.