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Issue - meetings

Review of Members' Allowances Scheme

 

 

Meeting: 16/07/2025 - Council (Item 24)

24 Review of Members' Allowances Scheme pdf icon PDF 296 KB

Purpose

To consider recommendations made to Council by the Independent Remuneration Panel.

 

Recommendation

That the Council considers the recommendations from the Independent Remuneration Panel, which are to;

1.            Agree to introduce a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) set at 0.25x of the Basic Allowance f(BA) for the position of Vice-Chair of Council, backdated to 21 May 2025.

2.            Retain the existing Co-optees’ Allowance (£75 for up to four hours and £150 for more than four hours but less than 24 hours for eligible meetings and other duties as in 5.1 of the Members Allowance Scheme 2023-2027) for Independent Members of the Audit and Governance Committee.

3.            Agree that the Co-Optees’ Allowance for Independent Persons who are consulted on standards matters, will be set at a flat rate of £1000 a year, backdated to 1 April 2025.

4.            Note that the next meeting of the Independent Remuneration Panel will be in 2026, ahead of the next full review in 2027.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This was taken before the item on Carterton units 1-3 at the Chair’s discretion.

 

The purpose of the item was to consider recommendations made to Council by the Independent Remuneration Panel. The Leader introduced the item and explained the changes that had been proposed to the scheme by the Council’s Independent Remuneration Panel. The Leader explained that the Council was able to pay an allowance to its co-opted members. The Council had co-opted members for two different purposes which was for advising on standards matters and those who sat on the Audit and Governance Committee. Due to the distinction between these two roles, the Panel had recommended that the allowances be paid at different rates for these roles. The Leader also explained that the Panel had recommended paying a special responsibility allowance to the Vice-Chair of Council with the view to reviewing the specific amount at a future review and had discussed but did not make any recommendations on whether to pay an ICT allowance. The Leader thanked the members of the Independent Remuneration Panel for their work.

 

In introducing the item, the Leader proposed an alteration to the fourth recommendation, which as amended read as “Note that the next meeting of the Independent Remuneration Panel will be in 2026, ahead of the next full review, so that a new members’ allowances scheme can be in place for 1 April 2027.”

 

Councillor Duncan Enright seconded the recommendations as amended, commending the Council’s decision to adopt a four-year scheme.

 

Council resolved to:

  1. Agree to introduce a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) set at 0.25x of the Basic Allowance (BA) for the position of Vice-Chair of Council, backdated to 21 May 2025.
  2. Retain the existing Co-optees’ Allowance (£75 for up to four hours and £150 for more than four hours but less than 24 hours for eligible meetings and other duties as in 5.1 of the Members Allowance Scheme 2023-2027) for Independent Members of the Audit and Governance Committee.
  3. Agree that the Co-Optees’ Allowance for Independent Persons who are consulted on standards matters, will be set at a flat rate of £1000 a year, backdated to 1 April 2025.
  4. Note that the next meeting of the Independent Remuneration Panel will be in 2026, ahead of the next full review so that a new members’ allowances scheme can be in place for 1 April 2027.

 

Voting record – For 41, Against 0, abstain 0, did not vote 2

 

 

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