Councillors take £1.27m in expenses

11:03am Thursday 3rd July 2008

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By Matt Smith »

THE taxpayers' bill for Hampshire county councillors has doubled in past seven years, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Allowances claimed by the council's 78 members totalled £1.278m last year, with an additional £110,000 paid out in expenses.

More than half of the county councillors claimed even more for their roles on other councils and public authorities.

Two county councillors pocketed more than £50,000 in their various allowances and expenses.

Council tax reform group IsItFair said the cost of the allowances was too high and questioned whether some councillors were value for money.

IsItFair founder Christine Melsom said: "The total bill is horrendous. It's toomuch for people to be spending on a council."

The figures come as an independent panel, carrying out the first full review of the county council's allowance scheme since it was set up eight years ago, begins to consider evidence it has received over the past month.

Councillors want to know whether they are being paid enough for their work and will get a report back in October, although they can ignore the recommendations.

County councillors can currently claim a basic allowance of £11,565 with extra allowances for special responsibilities, rising to £27,913 for the leader, Tory councillor Ken Thornber.

Yet many councillors are so called "double hatters" claiming extra sets of allowances for other public roles while in some cases holding down jobs as well.

Top of the pile is Tory councillor Mel Kendal who claimed a total of £60,958 for his job as Cabinet member for environment and his role as leader of New Forest District Council and the national park authority, while also running a business as an investment consultant.

Lib Dem councillor Keith House, who is a fulltime politician, claimed £54,092 for his role shadowing Cllr Kendal on the county council, for being leader of Eastleigh Borough Council, a member of the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority and SEEDA, the regional development agency.

IsItFair campaigner Rosemary Conway, who submitted evidence to the pay panel, said: "Some of these may well be estimable people. But clearly, even if they are workaholics, arithmetic shows a full-time employee cannot really be putting in more than a limited quota of hours on their council work."

Cllr Thornber said the workload of a county councillor should be about two or three days a week while a being Cabinet member was a "full-time job".

He said Cllr Kendal fulfilled his dual roles with "great difficulty"

and that he had discussed the issue with him, although refused to comment further.

"The only saving grace is many district councils do their work in the evening," Cllr Thornber said.

He said there were occasions when the dual responsibilities were in conflict.

"I've made it clear all along. The fewer double hatters the better,"

he said.

Cllr Thornber said his Tory administration was not seeking any increases in allowances for the "foreseeable future" and said most councillors were value for money.

"There are some members who give extremely good value for money.

There are some councillors who, as expected in any large organisation, only put in nominal appearances, but I think it's a minority."

IsItFair is calling for councillors to fully account for the work they actually do.

Cllr Thornber said he would prefer a return to allowances for attendances, which were scrapped under a shake-up of local government in 2000.

The move saw the allowance bill for county councillors rocket by more than 60 per cent the following year to £632,000.

The three-man remuneration panel will compare Hampshire, the third largest shire council in the country, to similar authorities as well as the private sector.

The review will also look at councillors' hours of work, levels of responsibility, and whether allowances should increase to attract younger and more ethnically diverse councillors.

Lib Dem councillor SamPayne, 25, the youngest on the authority, has argued her council work prevented her from being able to hold a part-time job and the present allowance on its own made it impossible to get a mortgage.

But Mrs Melsom said allowances, which are more than many full-time workers get paid, should not be regarded as an alternative income for jobless councillors.

She told the pay panel: "We cannot realistically expect that the council should reflect every age group and minority group, nor would this necessarily be desirable.

"Any move toward regarding it as obligatory to have such a composition, we would see as dangerously politically correct, and motivated by this wish to justify raising allowances."

Cllr Thornber said allowances were unlikely to be an incentive to attract younger candidates in the middle of their careers.

"We try to attract people who have finished their careers and are still active," added Cllr Thornber.

Councillors agreed in February to link their pay rise this year to the national pay award for staff.

That is still undecided after unions voted for a two-day walkout later this month in rejection of a 2.45 per cent rise.

Cllr Thornber said: "We are quite content to take whatever local Government employees are taking."

Southampton City Council is yet to publish its allowances.

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