Councillor Joanna Biddolph spoke at the Tuesday, 27th February budget-setting borough council meeting about members' allowances and the importance of councillors showing they are worth the payments, which change in line with staff pay - and the need for transparency about the amount paid for each allowance. Currently, out of date information sits on the council website until the start of the next municipal year. This common sense request led to silly comments from the leader of the council, Shantanu Rajawat, and the Labour group whip, John Stroud-Turp whose posturing playground politics was tinged with gaslighting. Jo later asked the council's chief executive to amend the way the information appears on the council's website and asked for staff and councillors to be informed of the year's change - currently, no information is given to councillors. You can watch Jo speaking, and the leader and group whip's comments and behaviour on the council's YouTube channel - see the link below.
Thank you, Mr Mayor. This is an annual tradition.
This is, I think, the sixth time I’ve stood up to talk about members’ allowances and I will be saying the same as I’ve said five times before. For a change, I have one new point.
We agreed, during the 2018 to 2022 term, that members’ allowances would be increased in line with staff pay and I still agree with that - and you've just made that point. It is not about not taking an SRA if you are bothered about the cost of it to the country, it is about not having more than we should have - but that was for the previous debate; I just do need to respond to the leader's point as that isn't the point that was being made.
So, back to my main point, as I’ve said every year, whatever we receive, it is an obligation on all of us to show our value to our residents and business ratepayers.
The basic allowance doesn’t compensate for the workload of an engaged, hardworking, proactive councillor and isn’t meant to. Nor does it match hours spent and nor is it meant to. It isn’t recompense for time spent; it is recognition of time spent.
Even though it might be pennies per hour for some, many residents think it is still too much no matter how hard a councillor works. There is resentment among some that we receive anything for what we do.
Mr Mayor, that is why I’m standing here saying the same as before – we must all work hard to demonstrate value for money. This isn’t our money, it is our residents’ and our business ratepayers’money. We must demonstrate to them that we are worth it.
However, we must also keep a watch on the total of the basic allowance as it must always be seen to be reasonable and appropriate and – this is my new point – we must know and publicise exactly what the allowance is.
For most of the year, information on the website refers to the previous year’s figure and a note that it will include the year’s uplift – an increase that's agreed sometime during the year. And I never know when it's made. We councillors aren't told. I don't know if the other side is told but we Conservatives are not told when an increase has been agreed or what we will be getting instead. And at no point does the correct sum appear after the increase has been agreed – until we see it in the papers for the annual budget-setting meeting. So, when asked by residents what we are paid, and after explaining it’s not pay but an allowance recognising time spent, all we can say is “it is roughly …” whatever the previous year’s figure is. That immediately sounds as if we are fudging a much larger figure, hiding the facts.
Mr Mayor, this might seem to be a small practical point but it is actually about transparency. Please can the correct amount be posted on the website as soon as the increase has been agreed. And please can it state the percentage increase and the previous year’s percentage increase. We must be wholly open about the allowances we receive and currently we can’t be. It’s shady – and this year, it includes asterisks beside each SRA – everyone associates asterisks with small print traps … exactly what we shouldn’t do. The information must be presented straightforwardly and informatively.
Watch on the council's YouTube channel.
- Jo speaks at around 02.24: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49F7to60bzk
- The politics of the playground starts at 02.28 when Labour group whip Cllr Stroud-Turp accuses Jo of not being able to find the information (which was not the point) then cites the out of date information (inadvertently proving Jo's point) and at 02.29.30 when Labour leader Cllr Shantanu Rajawat claims officers do publish the information which is not the case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49F7to60bzk
