£623,000 paid out in salaries and expenses

FIGURES show £622,992 was paid out to Dundee’s councillors in 2016-17.

The money i ncludes councillors’ salaries, mileage, travel expenses and telephone expenses.

Former administration leader Ken Guild was paid the highest annual salary of £33,789.

The new administration leader, John Alexander, will be paid £33,857.

Former Ferry councillor Mr Guild was awarded only one additional expense on top of his salary in his final year as council leader – £126.32 for telephone charges.

Council members are entitled to claim 50% of their personal line rental costs for approved duties, plus other telephone and computer costs.

Councillors Brian Gordon and Helen Wright and former Depute Lord Provost Christina Roberts were the only members to claim for phone expenses on top of those paid by the council.

Mr Gordon claimed £60 in phone expenses, Ms Wright claimed £90 and Ms Roberts claimed £125.95 on top of the council’s contribution to their phone line rental.

A councillor’s basic salary was £16,893 i n the 2016-17 session, rising to £16,927 in 2017-18, while salaries for conveners were £22,438, rising this year to £22,483.

The total wage bill for Dundee councillors in 201617 was £582,972.86 and the total expenses paid was £6,875.86. Recently retired Lord Provost Bob Duncan received the most expenses — £1,154.52.

As the city’s civic leader his expenses were paid by the Scottish Government, which provides a £3,000 allowance to each l ocal authority for that purpose.

This money is in addition to the lord provost’s annual salary of £25,341.

More than £40,000 of the expenses bill was paid toward the council’s civic cars — one used by the lord provost to take him to public ceremonies and civic events and another for use by other councillors and chief officers for attending meetings and other events.

Meanwhile, Councillor Fraser Macpherson, the Lib Dem representative for the West End ward, donated £1,047 from his salary to the Dundee Festival Trust, while Conservative Derek Scott has refused salary increases amounting to £412.