Councillors on Bath & North East Somerset Council have approved a backdated 4% pay rise for themselves.
The Guildhall in Bath
Being a councillor is a part-time role for most councillors, and they are officially paid an allowance rather than a salary.
This will rise by just over 4%, backdated to March 2022, which will mean a pay rise from £9,107 to £9,474 for most councillors.
Council cabinet member for resources, Richard Samuel, said: “This is, of course, never good timing.”
Councillors voted to approve the pay rise at a full council session last Thursday, 19th January.
In Bath and North East Somerset, councillor allowances are usually increased in line with the percentage pay rise for officers employed by the council, which are agreed between their union and local government employers.
But this year, instead of a percentage rise, their union and local government employers agreed a flat rate increase of £1,925 applied to each spinal point.
Councillor Samuel said: “That did give us a bit of a problem because our policy was to link to the percentage rise. And, as members will know, particularly on some of the lower allowances, that would have led to a very distorted additional award.”
A rise of 4.04% was recommended by an independent panel asked by the council to look at this – a lower rise than if a flat increase of £1,925 had been implemented.
Seconding the motion, councillor Karen Walker said: “I would like to thank the panel and their recommendation that elected members should be remunerated fairly for the duties they carry out in public life.”
Some councillors are paid an additional sum on top of their allowance, called a special responsibility allowance, for roles they perform on the council.
Council cabinet members will be paid an extra £20,624, up from £19,824, and the leader of the council will be paid an additional £34,345, up from £33,012.
The chairs of committees and the council are also paid a special responsibility allowance, as are the leaders of political groups.
Political group leaders are paid an extra £428 per member, which has not changed.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
