WOKINGHAM BOROUGH COUNCIL should consult the public more on proposed changes to the remuneration of councillors.
That’s the view of Cllr Andy Croy, Labour group leader on Wokingham Borough Council.
He asked Cllr John Kaiser, the executive member for finance and housing, why the borough council had consulted over changes to the Council Tax reduction Scheme, but not on ‘councillor pay rises’. The question was asked during a virtual meeting of Wokingham Borough Council’s Executive committee, held online on Thursday, November 27.
Responding, Cllr Kaiser said he was “somewhat surprised” by the question and that Cllr Croy had the “wrong end of the stick” as he had no intention to reduce the number of people who qualify for assistance with council tax, saying that more carers will qualify for the payment as a result of the changes.
He added: “There is a legal requirement to carry out a public consultation when considering changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.
“In Wokingham’s case, the key purpose of the consultation is to understand better how we can improve or how we or how we extend the scheme. Indeed, we think there’s an opportunity, as I’ve said earlier, to disregard carers allowance when taken into consideration, which will mean more carers will get the allowance.”
But on councillors’ expenses, he said: “The Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003 set out the framework for Members’ allowances to be awarded, in addition to detailing how Independent Remuneration Panels (IRPs) could operate.
“Wokingham Borough Council’s IRP is made up of members of the public who voluntarily give up their time to conduct a biennial review of the Members allowances scheme.
“The IRP make recommendations to the Council from an independent viewpoint, and the decision as to whether to accept those recommendations is then left to elected Members of the Council.”
He added that the recommendations are available for the public to inspect and also reported on by Wokingham.Today; feedback from residents is welcomed.
Cllr Croy agreed that the process is as outlined by legalisation, but said that this was the minimum standard.
“There’s nothing in the legislation that prevents the borough council from putting out a consultation on councillor pay rises which would inform the work of the IRP,” he continued. “I suspect that the reason we don’t is that you won’t necessarily which you want.”
Cllr Croy said that he felt the wording of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme survey was “very, very poor” and this view was backed up by others he had spoken to.
“Why can’t we design a decent to get proper answers from people?”
Cllr Kaiser said that there were cost implications for such changes and that other councils conducted the same consultations: “I can’t see any reason why we should change the way we do things just to cost the residents even more.”
