Agenda item

To consider the recommendation from the Constitution Committee.

The Constitution Committee, at its meeting on 15 July 2016, had considered the report of the Independent Remuneration Panel on the Scheme of Members’ Allowances.

The Independent Remuneration Panel had conducted a review of the current Scheme of Members’ Allowances. To inform its review, the Panel had considered comparative data on allowances paid in the CIPFA family of authorities of which Cheshire East was part. The Panel had also met members from the different political groups and received briefings from officers of the Council.  A copy of the Panel’s Report was attached as Appendix A to the Constitution Committee report.

The Constitution Committee had proposed a number of recommendations to Council. In proposing the recommendations of the Constitution Committee, the Chairman of the Committee thanked Professor Steve Leach, Chairman of the Independent Remuneration Panel and all those Members involved for their work in respect of this matter.

The Mayor reported that she proposed to deal with each individual recommendation sequentially and each individual recommendation was, therefore, voted on separately, and:-

RESOLVED

1.    That the Independent Remuneration Panel’s (IRP) report be noted, and that the IRP members be thanked for their work on the Scheme of Members’ Allowances (the Scheme).

2.    That it be agreed that:

a.            All allowances under the Scheme be index-linked, for a four year period commencing on 28th July 2016, to any NJC officers’ pay awards; the first of such indexation increases (if any) to apply to the NJC pay award for 2017/18.

b.            The Council’s new Allowances Scheme be implemented with effect from 28th July 2016.

(the following recommendations show the paragraph numbering in the financial analysis at Appendix C to the report)

c.            (1) That the Panel’s views about the level of any overall increase in the budget be noted.

d.            (2) That the Panel’s recommendations to discontinue Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs), as set out in paragraph 2 of Appendix C, be agreed.

e.            (3) That the Panel’s recommendations, that the SRAs of the Leader, Deputy Leader, Cabinet members and Group Leaders should remain at their current level (subject to any future indexation as per paragraph 2[a] above), be agreed.

f.     (4) That Consideration of the question of any changes to the SRA allocated to the Chairman of the Public Rights of Way Committee be deferred pending a report to the Constitution Committee upon potential options to amalgamate the work of that Committee with that of another decision-making body.

g.    (5) That, whilst the principle of the recommended change to the SRA allocated to the Chairman of the Licensing Committee is accepted, the current SRA be retained, pending a report to the Constitution Committee upon potential options for the re-distribution of the SRA in line with the Panel’s recommendations.

h.    (6a) That the Basic Allowance be increased to £11,754 per Member, as recommended by the Panel as its first option.

i.      (6b) That the second option recommended by the Panel, for a further increase to the Basic Allowance of an additional £187 per annum per Member be not accepted.

j.      (7) [as per Recommendation 2(a)].

11. (8) That the Panel’s recommendation that Members should be allowed to claim more than one SRA be not accepted.

12. (9) That the Panel’s recommendation, that fees paid to Members who act as directors of wholly owned companies/ASDVs etc should not be taken into account in relation to payment of SRAs be accepted, provided that SRAs will not be paid to such Members in circumstances in which the Director of Legal Services, in consultation with Group Leaders, determines that the payment of an SRA, or part, relates to a comparable duty performed by such Members in both roles.  

m.   (10) that no changes be made to the existing mileage rates available to Members, nor to the existing recommendation that they claim the HMRC rate of 45p per mile.

With reference to recommendation 2.d an amendment to add the words “and to also remove the SRA that is paid to Deputy Cabinet Members” at the end of the recommendation was declared not carried.

With reference to recommendation 2.e an amendment to remove the words “subject to any future indexation as per paragrpah2[a] above” was declared not carried.

With reference to recommendation 2.h, following the proposal and seconding of this recommendation, a requisition for named vote was submitted and duly supported, with the following results.

For

Cllr C Andrew, Cllr A Arnold, Cllr Rachel Bailey, Cllr Rhoda Bailey, Cllr G Barton, Cllr P Bates, Cllr G Baxendale, Cllr M Beanland,
 Cllr D Brown, C Browne, Cllr B Burkhill, Cllr P Butterill Cllr J Clowes,
Cllr H Davenport, Cllr L Durham, Cllr S Edgar, Cllr JP Findlow, Cllr S Gardiner, Cllr S Gardner, Cllr L Gilbert, Cllr P Groves, 
Cllr A Kolker,  Cllr A Martin,  Cllr B Moran, Cllr H Murray, Cllr S Pochin, Cllr J Saunders, Cllr M Simon, Cllr L Smetham, Cllr G Walton,
Cllr J Weatherill, Cllr H Wells-Bradshaw, Cllr G Williams,
Cllr J Wray

Against

Cllr D Bailey, Cllr S Brookfield, Cllr C Chapman, Cllr B Dooley Cllr I Faseyi, Cllr D Flude, Cllr T Fox, Cllr M Grant, Cllr M Hardy, Cllr A Harewood, Cllr S Hogben, Cllr D Hough, Cllr J Jackson, Cllr L Jeuda, Cllr M Jones, Cllr N Mannion, R Menlove, Cllr M Parsons, Cllr J Rhodes, Cllr B Roberts, Cllr A Stott, Cllr B Walmsley, Cllr M Warren.

Not Voting

Cllr G Baggott, Cllr D Bebbington, Cllr E Brooks, Cllr M Deakin, Cllr J Hammond, Cllr O Hunter, Cllr D Mahon, S Mcgrory, Cllr G Merry, Cllr A Moran, J Weston

The motion was declared carried, with 34 votes for, 23 against and 11 not voting.

(With reference to recommendation 2.l, Cllr S Hogben declared an interest, by virtue of being a Director of Ansa and stated that he would not vote or take part in the debate on this matter).

With regard to recommendation 2.l, the proposer and seconder of the motion agreed to the inclusion of the words “in consultation with Group Leaders” after the words “Director of Legal Services” .