Councillors disagree over rise in allowance as proposal voted in

Councillors at Wyre voted for a 5.4 per cent rise in their annual allowance – but the Conservatives and Labour disagreed over the amount.

A report from the Independent Remuneration Panel recommended that the basic allowance paid to each councillor be increased by 5.4% from £4,911 per annum to £5,175 per annum, with effect from 15 May 2025.

Coun Michael Vincent, leader of the Conservative-led council, introduced the report and proposed its recommendation of the 5.4 percent rise.

But Labour put forward an amendment, prososing the rise should only be 2.5 per cent, in line with with inflation.

However, the Labour motion was outvoted.

Coun Vincent told the full council meeting, on January 23: “It’s always somewhat problematic for members to be asked to vote on giving themselves a pay rise.

“But for the last however many years I’ve been a councillor, since 2007, at times when staff pay was frozen or increased by small increments, members allowance schemes always increased by very small increments.

“This year may look large but the reason why it is as large as it is, is because we did a pay realignment for officers that meant we caught up with our neighbours. So all this does is catch up with our neighbours.

“We should not be ashamed to be reimbursed for the hard work that we all do. It’s not easy, it’s long hours and these expenses don’t fully compensate you for the time, nobody does it for the money but equally, it’s nice to feel valued and we should be valued because what we do is important.”

But Coun Duffy, in proposing her amendment, said on behalf of the Labour group: “We feel that at this time we should not be awarding ourselves an increase that is above the current rate of inflation, which is hovering about 2.5 percent.

“I propose that the basic allowance paid to each councillor be increased by 2.5 per cent from £4,911 to £5,033 per annum with effect from May 15 2025 in line with inflation.

“This is not simply gesture politics, as some councillors might tend to suggest, it’s about doing what is right by the residents of the borough.

“The average UK wage increase is forecast to be 3.9 per cent – however we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that this is not a wage but an allowance that we receive.

“We are not staff, we are elected members and as elected Councillors we should be making sure that residents’ council tax is spent as wisely as possible.”

The following members voted in support of the amendment: Councillors Sir R Atkins, Beavers, Belshaw, Blair, Crawford, Duffy, Fail, Fielding, Higginson, Higgs, Martin, Moliner, Raynor, Rimmer, Rushforth, Smith, B Stephenson, Swatton, A Walker, C Walker and Wells.

The following members voted against the amendment: Councillors Amos, Lady D Atkins, Baxter, Berry, Birch, Bolton, Bowen, Bridge, Cartridge, Catterall, Collinson, Ellison, Ibison, Kay, Le Marinel, Leigh, Livesey, Meekins, Minto, Nicholls, Rendell, Robinson, Swift, Thewlis and Vincent.

The amendment proposed by Councillor Duffy was lost (by 21 votes to 25), while the original proposal agreed (by 27 votes to 16 with 3 abstentions.