Barnet will be discussing Cllr allowances at the meeting on Tuesday, the same meeting where they will be receiving a petition on library closures.
Cllrs currently receive an allowance of £10,597 and, in addition, certain Cllrs receive a special responsibility allowance. These range from an additional £35,000 for Richard Cornelius as leader of the council down to an additional £2,368 for Chairmen (even women are Chairmen) of the Residents Forums and Vice Chairmen of 8 committees. 17 Chairmen of committees receive an additional allowance of £15,333. This ranges from committees which sit frequently such as the Planning Committee - 10/11 times a year, to those which sit just four times a year such as the Housing Committee or Community Leadership Committee. The Licensing Committee Chairman attracts a lower special responsibility allowance of £8,852 but in 2014 this committee only sat twice.
From what I can see, 26 of the 32 Conservative councillors receive some form of special responsibility allowance whereas only one Labour Cllr receives an additional allowance, Alison Moore, as leader of the major opposition group. Some Cllrs work hard for which they receive their main allowance and I understand why the leader and opposition leader receive an additional allowance as they have to devote a great deal of time to the running of the council but the rest of the special responsibility allowances seem to me like a way to reward loyalty within the Conservative group.
If we really want to make cuts, I would do away with all special responsibility allowances other than for Cllr R Cornelius and Cllr Moore. If committee chairmen didn't receive an allowance then maybe the council would rationalise the number of committees.
By way of example of how the current system isn't working is Danny Seal, the globe trotting Cllr for Hampstead Garden Suburb who has only attended 9 of the 15 meetings he should have attended, or just 60%, see the details here. However, in addition to his standard allowance of £10,597 he receives an additional allowance of £2,368 for his role as Chairman of the Finchley & Golders Green Residents Forum. Imagine an employee turning up only 60% of the time and asking for extra payment. They would be shown the door.
By cutting out special responsibility allowances it would reduce the allowances bill by approximately £300,000 a year and in addition would do away with the patronage system that buys loyalty with committee chairmanship roles.
Perhaps Cllrs should consider this before they go making cuts to the library and other essential services which residents value on Tuesday.
Standing up for common sense in New Barnet
Showing posts with label Councillor allowances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Councillor allowances. Show all posts
Monday, 2 March 2015
Thursday, 10 July 2014
Waste and Bureaucracy at Barnet Council
Papers for the forthcoming council meeting set out, amongst other things, the members allowance scheme and the responsibilities of key committees.
When the Council was considering changing from a cabinet system to a committee system there was much talk about how it would give backbench members more of a role. The reality appears to be giving more Conservative councillors the opportunity to gain a special responsibility allowance. This is the allowance paid on top of a basic councillors allowance of £10,597. The Leader Cllr Richard Cornelius receives an additional allowance of £34,000 which is probably fair enough given that the role does take up a great deal of time. The deputy leader Cllr Dan Thomas receives an extra £27,000 which does seem excessive but that has always been the practice. Where I start to have a real objection is the number of chairmen (they are all called Chairman regardless of actual gender) and vice chairmen who now get an allowance.
Given that the Conservative group have always held all the Chairman and Vice Chairmen posts, this means that it will be possible to allocate a special allowance to every single one of the 32 Conservative councillors.
Looking at what councillors have to do for this special allowance, the work load does seem to vary. For the Residents Forums the Chairmen have to chair 4 meetings a year which means that for each meeting they receive £592 for a committee which lasts a maximum of 2 hours. The area sub committees also meet 4 times a year immediately after the residents forums. The chairmen of these committees, Cllrs Sowerby, Old and Gordon therefore receive £2,213 for each meeting they chair. That strikes me as completely over the top.
We then look at the highest paid chairmen. For example, Cllr Davey chairs the Housing Committee which meets 4 times a year. While accepting that there is some work to be done outside the committee meetings, £3,833 per meeting does seem completely out of proportion given that it is on top of the £10,597 basic allowance.
From my perspective this entire exercise has been about jobs for Tory councillors and exceptionally well paid jobs to boot. These councillors may claim they are running the council but in reality there is a team of highly paid senior executives earning six figure salaries to do that job.
What also strikes me as bizarre is the fact that for all the committees holding meetings most are simply talking shops with virtually all the power resting in just one committee, Policy and Resources details of which you can read here.
On a day when local authority workers are striking over low pay, it does seem rather offensive that so many Conservative councillors are planning to reward themselves with so much for so little.
When the Council was considering changing from a cabinet system to a committee system there was much talk about how it would give backbench members more of a role. The reality appears to be giving more Conservative councillors the opportunity to gain a special responsibility allowance. This is the allowance paid on top of a basic councillors allowance of £10,597. The Leader Cllr Richard Cornelius receives an additional allowance of £34,000 which is probably fair enough given that the role does take up a great deal of time. The deputy leader Cllr Dan Thomas receives an extra £27,000 which does seem excessive but that has always been the practice. Where I start to have a real objection is the number of chairmen (they are all called Chairman regardless of actual gender) and vice chairmen who now get an allowance.
- 17 Chairmen receive a special allowance of £15,333
- 5 Chairmen receive a special allowance of £8,852
- 3 Chairmen of the residents forums receive a special allowance of £2,368
- In addition the Vice Chairmen of 8 committees also receive an allowance of £2,368
Given that the Conservative group have always held all the Chairman and Vice Chairmen posts, this means that it will be possible to allocate a special allowance to every single one of the 32 Conservative councillors.
Looking at what councillors have to do for this special allowance, the work load does seem to vary. For the Residents Forums the Chairmen have to chair 4 meetings a year which means that for each meeting they receive £592 for a committee which lasts a maximum of 2 hours. The area sub committees also meet 4 times a year immediately after the residents forums. The chairmen of these committees, Cllrs Sowerby, Old and Gordon therefore receive £2,213 for each meeting they chair. That strikes me as completely over the top.
We then look at the highest paid chairmen. For example, Cllr Davey chairs the Housing Committee which meets 4 times a year. While accepting that there is some work to be done outside the committee meetings, £3,833 per meeting does seem completely out of proportion given that it is on top of the £10,597 basic allowance.
From my perspective this entire exercise has been about jobs for Tory councillors and exceptionally well paid jobs to boot. These councillors may claim they are running the council but in reality there is a team of highly paid senior executives earning six figure salaries to do that job.
What also strikes me as bizarre is the fact that for all the committees holding meetings most are simply talking shops with virtually all the power resting in just one committee, Policy and Resources details of which you can read here.
On a day when local authority workers are striking over low pay, it does seem rather offensive that so many Conservative councillors are planning to reward themselves with so much for so little.
Monday, 25 June 2012
Barnet Councillor Allowances - Value for Money?
Last week I blogged that the 2010/11 Councillors allowances had at last been released but that 2011/12 were not yet available. Well this morning I tried again and they are now available here. What is striking is just how many non Cabinet members are still drawing allowances in excess of £20,000. For example Dean Cohen received £24,257.10 and that was before he was elevated to the Cabinet. Cllrs Davey and Finn also received just over £24,000 whilst Cllrs Perry, Prentice, Rayner, Scanell and A Tambourides all earned just under £26,000. Cabinet members received around £28,000 with the deputy leader and leader earning more. In total Councillor allowances are over £1 million a year.
Now the public needs to think about this hard. According to the Office of National Statistics the average earning of people employed is £467 per week which equates to about £25,000 per annum. So some Councillors are drawing a full time salary for the work they do. My question to ratepayers is does this represent value for money? I must make the point that one Councillor continues to draw less than they are entitled to. Well done Brian Salinger.
Now the public needs to think about this hard. According to the Office of National Statistics the average earning of people employed is £467 per week which equates to about £25,000 per annum. So some Councillors are drawing a full time salary for the work they do. My question to ratepayers is does this represent value for money? I must make the point that one Councillor continues to draw less than they are entitled to. Well done Brian Salinger.
Friday, 22 June 2012
A very busy Friday - Councillor allowances for 2010/11 published at last!
Yet another FOI response today! This time the Councillors allowances, which have taken a year to be disclosed, have now been published here. Although a link to the 2011/12 allowances also appear on the Council's website the link does not appear to work. Let's hope we don't have to wait a year for them to appear.
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