Recommended increase in Cornwall Council member allowance

Councillors will make a final decision at a meeting next week

An independent panel has recommended that Cornwall Council members should have their allowances raised to more than £17,000 a year.

Under the proposals the 87 councillors would get an increase of just over 4% backdated to April 2022, with another 4% for the coming year.

Since 2017 councillors have received a basic allowance of £15,130.

The council's independent remuneration panel has recommended that this should rise to £17,681 from May 2023.

A report on the issue is set to go before an extraordinary meeting of full council next week when councillors will make a final decision, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

When the council last considered its allowances scheme in 2021 it rejected the recommendations of the independent panel and instead continued with the current rates.

All 87 councillors can claim the basic allowance and those with additional roles - such as the leader, Cabinet members and chairs of committees - can claim special responsibility allowances (SRAs).

These would also increase under the proposals from the independent panel.

'Make ends meet'

Under the changes the leader would be able to claim an extra £32,711 and the deputy leader £24,533.

Cabinet members and the chairman of the council would get an SRA of £22,897.

Kirsty Hickson, chairwoman of the independent remuneration panel said in the foreword to her report the recommendation were influenced by "the impact of the cost of living crisis on members' abilities to 'make ends meet' and potentially posing a barrier to individuals standing for election" and "an increase in the work for members since the reduction in numbers to 87 from 123 in 2021".

In a survey as part of the remuneration process, the largest number of members said that they work between 35 and 40 hours a week on their basic council business.

The majority of councillors felt the current allowance of £15,130.75 was "not reasonable".

The report will be considered by full council when it meets on Tuesday and councillors will then vote on whether to accept the recommendations.