Cheshire East councillors to vote on plans to increase allowances

Cheshire East councillors will decide next week whether to increase their allowances, writes Belinda Ryan.

All CEC councillors currently have a basic allowance of £12,851, with the council leader having a special responsibility allowance (SRA) of £29,517 on top of that and the deputy an SRA of £17,820.

Committee chairs and others with special responsibilities have an additional allowance of up to £12,485.

The Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) recommended these allowances should increase by 2.5% for 2024/25 and 3.2% for 2025/26, backdated to April 2024.

And in March the corporate policy committee agreed, by majority vote, to recommend the uplift to full council, which meets on Wednesday (May 13).

Full council will also be asked to agree that a targeted review be conducted by the IRP to consider member allowances for when Cheshire East transfers to a cabinet system – which happens this month.

During the March meeting, some councillors had raised concerns the low payments were a barrier to younger people standing for election because they couldn’t afford to take time off from their paid employment to fulfil a councillor role.

Deputy leader Michael Gorman (Wilmslow, Ind) had said: “One big issue is that we risk being a council of the retired, for the retired, focusing on issues that concern the retired.”

He asked: “Do member allowances have a bearing on this?”

And he said the cabinet system will bring a huge increase in responsibilities for portfolio members.

Cllr Rob Vernon (Macclesfield, Lab) had said: “This idea that 50% of member time is voluntary and not eligible for remuneration, it locks in, by necessity, that the council is of the retired and of the independently wealthy.

He added just 1.2% of the elected council is under 40 ‘and these policies, they do entrench that’.

The matter will be discussed at the extraordinary meeting of the full council, which takes place at Tatton Park at 2.30pm on Wednesday, May 13.

The extraordinary meeting will follow mayor-making and the annual meeting, which takes place at 11am on the same day.