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Councillor Barry Edwards |
'DISGUST' OVER £1,000 MEETINGS
Area committee chairmen paid thousands for two-hour sessions
COUNCILLORS have come under fire for pocketing £1,000 from every committee meeting they have chaired to discuss problems specific to the borough’s wards.
The three men and one woman who chair the area committees took home more than £6,000 each last year, for hosting six two-hour meetings to discuss ward issues. In the cases of south and north area committees, only five meetings were held.
While some councillors have defended the amount, saying the role requires more work than just chairing a meeting, Labour councillor Barry Edwards – who donated half of his allowance to charity – said the sum was “ridiculous”.
The news comes as £130,000 of pay cuts kick in this month, which will see councillors’ allowances slashed across the board.
The allowance for councillors who chair area committees will drop to £2,000 from this month, equalling £333 per meeting.
The lower allowances were introduced following a Labour one-vote victory at the February budget debate.
Planning and licensing chairmen don’t receive an allowance yet have to attend 11 meetings, read bundles of legal documents and make multiple site visits throughout the year.
Cllr Edwards, who chairs the east area committee, said: “It’s a ridiculous figure. The committees don’t have much of the legalistic stuff, they are more to do with trying to set policy and generate ideas. I’d like to make them more effective but that doesn’t mean giving the chairs more money. You can make your job as much or as little as you want. It’s no different to being a councillor.”
He added: “I’ve visited other boroughs to see how they operate. I’ve probably initiated more things in the west area than other committee chairs have done in other areas.
“I tried to put in a bit more, which meant I didn’t just look at things in my own ward but also taking in King’s Cross. Before the committtee, I meet the officer who does the clerking to see what’s coming up, but I didn’t think it was worth £6,000.”
Mr Edwards said much of the work was the basic duty of a ward councillor.
East area committee chairman Rhodri Jamieson-Ball defended the pay, saying he sometimes put in a whole day’s work before the meeting. Asked if he was worth £1,000 a day, he replied: “We had quite a busy year. There’s a lot of agenda planning before meetings, reading of papers, liaising with officers. In east area, because of Arsenal, I’ve spent quite a lot of time looking at road closures and traffic. When we put in a 20mph zone I paid a site visit. I’ve had meetings with residents about Highbury Fields.
“It depends on each meeting how much I’ve put in. It can add up to quite a few hours, it can be a day’s worth of work. Saying we’re being paid £1,000 a meeting is a simple way of looking at it – I know I’ve been working incredibly hard.”
Philip Sharp, of the Taxpayers Alliance, said: “People will find it disgusting. The whole notion of being paid £1,000 a meeting is something people will find pretty unbelievable at the best of times, but in the current climate I imagine they would be stunned.”
Finsbury campaigner Leo Chapman, said: “Planning and licensing committee chairs have very serious legal responsibilties as well as time-consuming detailed preparation, but they get no special responsibility allowances [SRAs]. Area chairs will still get a £2,000 SRA, or £333 for each of the usual six meetings a year.
“One would think that £50 for chairing an area meeting would be enough.”
He added: “If there is more to chairing an area meeting than meets the eye then it is up to the chairs to tell the paying public just what it is that merits £333 a meeting, or, as in the past, the munificent £1,224 fee commanded by Councillor Jyoti Vaja for each of her five south area meetings in the 2008-09 financial year.”
Islington Council deputy leader Cllr Terry Stacy defended the payments, saying: “I do believe that the special responsibility allowance is justified.
“It’s a community leadership role and I believe colleagues deserve that money. For example, when residents raised concerns about a utility company, Cllr Jyoti Vaja organised a special area committee.
“We had a special committee about the Post Office.
“All that is about community leadership and these are good examples. It’s not just about going to meetings, it’s about community leadership in different areas.”
Cuts... Councillors paid less
COUNCILLORS’ pay will drop by thousands of pounds from this month as the new cuts come into force.
Chief whip, Councillor Barbara Smith, faces the biggest cut, as her allowance is slashed from £18,000 to £5,000.
Council leader James Kempton and all executive members will be £5,000 lighter in the pocket – cabinet members will now be on £30,000, while Cllr Kempton will take home £43,000.
Labour leader Catherine West will lose £1,000, while review committee chairmen will lose nearly £9,000 each.
Area committee special allowances will drop from £6,000 to £2,000, while the mayor and members of the adoption and fostering panel are the only people to receive a minor rise. |
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