Issue - meetings

                                                                                                            TO FOLLOW

To receive the report of the Director of Finance and Corporate Resources, (No. 37) containing recommendations from the Members Services Working Party held on 19 June 2006.

RECEIVED the report of the Director of Finance and Corporate Resources, (No. 37) containing recommendations from the Members Services Working Party held on 19 June 2006.

NOTED

1.         that the Borough Solicitor advised the Council that the Standards Board for England had recently given guidance as to the position of Members in relation to allowances and conflicts of interest.  Paragraph 10 (2) of the Members’ Code of Conduct allows an exemption from a prejudicial interest to Councillors to enable them to determine the levels of their allowances.

2.         the advice from the Standards Board, in the interests of openness and transparency, is that all Members should declare personal interests.  Notwithstanding this advice, declarations of interest are members responsibility, he therefore asked any Member who did not wish to declare a personal interest to indicate by raising their hand and their name would not be recorded in the minutes.  No hands were raised.

3.         in accordance with  2 above it was deemed that all members present at the meeting and listed at the start of these minutes, declared a personal interest.

RESOLVED

1.         to Increase the basic allowance for all councillors from £6,750 to £9,500 per year (paragraph 4)

2.         to approve the levels of Special Responsibility Allowances as set out in Appendix A (paragraph 5) with the proviso that, if a member occupies more than one eligible position, they will be paid the higher SRA only.

3.         that consideration of whether to admit all councillors who wish to join to the Local Government Pension Scheme on the criteria set out by the ALG’s Independent Remuneration Panel (paragraph 6) be deferred until September 2006 to allow the Working Party to consider a more detailed report.

4.         that consideration of whether the Council should pay dependent carers allowance (paragraph 7) be deferred until September 2006 to allow the Working Party to consider a more detailed report.

5.         to increase automatically the rates for travel and subsistence each year in line with inflation (paragraph 8).

6.         to limit the payment to co-opted members to the Chairman of the Standards Committee (paragraph 9)

7.         that the allowances be increased annually in line with the national index for average earnings rather than 1% plus the retail price index as agreed by Council previously (paragraphs 3.4 and 10).

8.         that the above changes be operative from 5 May 2006.