Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Executive. The chair of the Independent Remuneration Panel, Paul Johnstone will be in attendance.

The Chief Executive introduced the report as circulated with the agenda.  The report explained that the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) had completed the statutory four yearly review of the Members Allowance Scheme and their recommendations for implementation from April 2015 were set out in paragraph 5 of the report. The full report of the IRP was attached as an appendix to the main report. He indicated that the chair of the IRP, Paul Johnstone, was in attendance to answer any questions that Members had on their report.

A Member was puzzled that the basic allowance seemed to be in line with other councils in the same family as Cheltenham whereas the Cabinet Member’s Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) seemed much higher by comparison.

The chair of the IRP explained that the panel had set out to provide a matrix scheme for calculating all allowances which was transparent and could be open to change by Council. The factors in the scheme, which determined the SRAs, had been set by the panel after many different consultations with Members over several years and the scheme had been in place in its current form since 2006.  There had been no objections to the methodology adopted and Council had the option to revise any factors they felt needed adjustment.

A Member queried the £100 that was being recommended to be included in the basic allowance.

The chair of the IRP referred Members to the panel’s report where the panel explained that the additional sum was an allowance to Members for the use of their own home ICT, Wi-Fi and communication facilities. 

In response to a question from a Member, it was confirmed that the current scheme did provide provision for a Dependent Carer's Allowance.

A Member expressed a view that Members with a poor attendance record should not continue to receive their allowance.

Another Member challenged this view, saying that Members could often achieve more through their casework in their ward than they could in attending a council or committee meeting. In their view the Council should acknowledge the financial hardship that many of their residents were experiencing and take no increases in their allowances which he considered were adequate.

The Leader proposed an amendment to the recommendations set out in section 5 of the covering report in that 2) and 5) should be deleted. This would mean that no SRAs would receive the recommended 1% inflationary increase. In proposing the recommendation he thanked the panel for their work. He acknowledged that the Council could not freeze allowances indefinitely as they must be mindful of the need to attract new Councillors. On this basis he considered it was appropriate that the basic allowance was increased by 1% but not the SRAs.

Councillor Clucas seconded the amendment and this became the substantive motion.

Regarding the additional ICT component, she highlighted that Members with a council iPad still needed access to WiFi at home which did have a cost. She also stressed the importance of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8