Mayor's allowance increase defended

Mayor Thomas Murray will have an allowance of up to £3,500 to carry out his duties

Reform UK councillors have defended an increase in the allowance granted to a mayor as he should not be left "out of pocket" for the unpaid role.

At its first budget meeting in July, Scarborough Town Council agreed the mayor, Thomas Murray, of Reform, should receive an allowance of up to £3,500.

The council said the allowance was an upper limit for expenses and might not be claimed in its entirety.

A group of charter trustees - councillors who represented the town's unparished areas on North Yorkshire Council - were previously responsible for civic traditions. The former charter mayor's initial allowance, in financial year 2023/24, was £500 but this was increased to £1,000 for 2024/25.

Speaking at the town council's full meeting, Independent opposition councillor Rich Maw expressed "serious concerns" over the allocation and asked how it could be justified.

"I just respectfully ask the following: What is the justification for increasing the allowance to £3,500, please?"

Murray said the figure was based on how many engagements he might attend in a given year and how much each event had cost him, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He added: "The allowance is set at £3,500 because I'm aware that this is public money.

"However, the estimate that I came up with is a lot more than that.

"So, it would cost me to be the mayor, and as this is an unpaid role, this money is solely for me to exercise my duties efficiently."

'Cost aware'

Murray previously told the LDRS the council would be cautious about how it spent money, making sure it was used "meaningfully and not wasted".

According to fellow Reform councillor Stuart Murray, the authority had already saved £5,000 in money that was allocated in relation to the mayor's chains and civic regalia.

He said the party was "very aware of the budget cost" and that "the figure is hopefully more than we need to spend in that particular area".

"The point really is that we do want to support the role of mayor for this town."

He added: "If that £3,500 were to be put on the council tax bill, it would be the equivalent of 25p a year, council tax bill equivalent."

At the council's full meeting, the mayor was also asked whether the allowance had been benchmarked against that of other parish councils of a similar size and structure.

The mayor said other councils' spending had been looked at and added: "The scope of the town council has received considerable impact, so if we get less impact next year, then the allowance will get reduced."

The overall budget for Scarborough Town Council's first year up to March 2026, including staff salaries, was set at £385,750.

Correction 11 August: On 24 July this article was updated to make clear that Cllr Maw was referencing finances from the 2023/24 budget in relation to the fees of £500 received by the mayor and £100 by the deputy mayor. It was also amended to make clear that the new allowance was "up to" £3,500. LDRS has since issued a clarification on the figures, explaining that while they were accurately quoted from the meeting of Scarborough Town Council on July 16, because the former charter mayor's initial allowance from 2023/24 was increased to £1,000 for the following year's budget, the discussion at the meeting about the new allowance of £3,500 would have concerned an increase of 250% and not 600% as previously reported. We have removed the reference to a 600% increase and updated the article to explain that this was Scarborough Town Council's first budget meeting and that a group of charter trustees were previously responsible for maintaining civic traditions. In light of the clarification we have also removed a section of the article reporting that Nigel Farage had subsequently been challenged over the increase on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

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