Agenda item

Pursuant to Cabinet Minute No. 48 (2023/2024) the Head of Regulatory Law & Monitoring Officer submitted a report for Council to consider the report and recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel (IR Panel) following its recent review of the Members' Allowances Scheme.

Councillor Holmes proposed an amendment to the recommendations relating to the IRP report on the members’ allowances scheme as follows:

1.      That the recommended increases in the Basic Allowance and in the Special Responsibility Allowances be frozen between now and the end of the 2024/25 financial year, in view of the unprecedented and deep £4million of cuts, savings and fee increases that are being implemented.

2.      The issue should be reconsidered for 2025/26 in the context of whatever measures are being proposed to deal with the predicted deficit for that financial year.

The amendment was voted on by members and was not approved.

RESOLVED –

1.      That Full Council approves the report and recommendations of the IR Panel for implementation from 1 April 2024.

2.    That the IR Panel's report be published in the press and on the Council’s website.

3.    That a supplementary estimate to meet the additional costs outlined in paragraph 6.4 be approved for the financial year 2024/25.

4.    That Full Council expresses both its appreciation and thanks to the members of the IR Panel for the thorough and efficient way in which they carried out the review.

5.    That the basic allowance, special responsibility allowances, subsistence allowance and Mayoral Allowance are updated annually in line with the annual percentage pay increase given to Chesterfield Borough Council employees (or by a percentage equivalent to that of the mean/median pay increase, in the event of a flat rate increase) as agreed for each financial year by the National Joint Council for Local Government Staff until 31 March, 2027 unless the Council has before then sought a further recommendation from its IR Panel on their application in this scheme.