Councillor to give away his pay rise
ACOUNCILLOR who disagreed with a pay rise has pledged to donate his share to charity.
Coun Mick Warren, an independent for Macclesfield East ward, voted against proposals to give Cheshire East councillors a £288 rise in their annual basic allowances.
After the meeting, he promised to donate a monthly sum of £24 to local causes and asked for suggestions.
He said: “I voted against both proposals as I feel the current level is acceptable. We can’t warrant a rise of £288 for 82 councillors, plus an additional £187, when services are being cut across the area.
“Many people, including family members, have not had a pay rise for years and I don’t want to be seen as another pig at the trough just because I can.
“Allowances are not compulsory. It’s only £24, a token gesture, but it’s the principle. I would urge all councillors to follow their conscience. If they think they should keep the allowance, then they should do that, if not, then they can follow what I have done.”
The increase for all 82 councillors takes the annual pay from £11,754 to £11,941 and was approved at a meeting of full council last Thursday, with 34 to 23 voting in favour of the 2.5pc rise.
Those who voted against included all the Labour councillors, plus Conservative councillors Beverley Dooley and Martin Hardy, who pointed out that Cheshire East Councillors received a higher basic allowance that other councils. Council leader Rachel Bailey, who voted in favour of the rise, said: “No-one that stands and is elected as a councillor does this for the remuneration. You do it because you want to make a difference.”
Councillors voted to reject a second proposal to boost the basic allowance by an additional £187 per year, to bring it more into line with pay increases given to officers.
The increases were part of proposals by a special independent review panel set up to look at councillors’ allowances.
The panel compared the pay increases of councillors and officers since 2009 and found councillors’ basic allowance had increased by 2.3 per cent in six years, while staff pay was up by 3.2 per cent.
They proposed making savings by reducing the amount of Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs), given to councillors performing extra duties such as cabinet members and chairs of key committees.
At the meeting last week councillors agreed to stop paying £1,000 per year to vice-chair roles to pay for the new increases to basic allowances but deferred the decision to cut the allowances for chairs of the Public Rights of Way committee and the Licensing committee.