Issue - meetings

The Service Director of Governance and Legal Services & Monitoring Officer presented a report of the Independent Remuneration Panel.  The report sought to establish an Independent Remuneration Panel, which would be asked to consider and make recommendations on the following:

·       Whether the Junior Executive Members role should receive a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) and if so, the amount of the allowance.

·       Whether a board member of Dragonfly Development Limited and Dragonfly Management (Bolsover) Limited should receive a Special Responsibility Allowance.

·       A review of the Members Allowances Scheme as a whole.

The proposed membership of the Independent Remuneration Panel was Graham Hudson, Amanda Orchard and David Richardson.

The report also set out a proposal to pay an allowance to the members of the Independent Remuneration Panel.  The Regulations allowed for the Council to pay the Panel an allowance as it saw fit.  In light of the work that a panel member would be expected to undertake it was considered reasonable to agree an allowance of £100 per meeting.  This was in line with what other Councils paid.

The Independent Remuneration Panel had met in July 2023 to consider a recommendation regarding the role of Junior Executive Member.  The Panel had recommended that the Junior Executive Member role should receive a Special Responsibility Allowance, and that allowance should be £2,445.36 per year (being 50% of an Executive Member Special Responsibility Allowance).  A copy of the Panel’s full report was attached to the report at Appendix 1.

The recommended actions as set out in the report were moved as a Motion by Councillor Mary Dooley and seconded by Councillor Sandra Peake.

Councillor Will Fletcher stated that Bolsover District Council paid the highest basic allowance of any non-metropolitan district council in England.  He stated that he had called for a 33% reduction in the basic allowance during the recent council elections and when talking to residents there had been strong support for reducing the basic allowance, so it was more in line with that paid by similar councils.  On top of the generous basic allowance many members already received a SRA.  The IRP report commented on the number of members who already received a SRA and the guidance regarding paying SRAs to a majority of Members.  Councillor Fletcher noted that agreeing to pay a SRA to the Junior Executive Members would take the number of Councillors paid a SRA to almost 70%.  He stated that the country was in the midst of a cost of living crisis and there remained uncertainties around the Council’s income.  Councillor Fletcher concluded that it was clear to him that the Council’s allowances were more than generous enough, and it should not be necessary for a Junior Executive Member to receive a SRA as well, and he then moved an amendment.

The following amendment was moved by Councillor Will Fletcher and seconded by Councillor Carol Wood.

‘recommendation 3 - delete all after “to consider the attached report of the Independent Remuneration Panel” and insert the following “and decide that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29