Councillors on North Yorkshire Council have voted to increase their pay by £1,500 a year.

North Yorkshire Council‘s independent remuneration panel recommended the 90 elected councillors’ annual basic allowance should be increased from £15,500 to £17,000.

The 10% uplift, along with other increases for councillors with special responsibility allowances, will mean council tax payers have to foot an extra £145,000 each year.

Councillors backed the move at a full council meeting in Northallerton today.

Cllr Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, a Liberal Democrat who represents Masham and Fountains division on the council, said at the meeting today that she would not support the increase.

She said:

“May I remind everyone that we are in a cost of living crisis. Awarding ourselves a pay rise at this time is indefensible.”

However, Cllr Carl Les, leader of the council, said the independent panel had considered the current cost of living when making the decision to recommend the rise.

“The independent panel know that there is a cost of living crisis. They have factored that in to their deliberations.”

Cllr Les added that it was up to individual councillors as to whether they accepted all or some of the allowance available to them.

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Panel chair Keith Trotter cited the increased workload caused by the creation of North Yorkshire Council, inflation and the cost of living as reasons for the recommendation.

The £1,500 increase in the annual basic allowance from £15,500 to £17,000 will result in an increase in the total annual amount paid of £135,000.

Meanwhile, the two per cent increase in the special responsibility allowances paid, with the exception of sessional payments to chairs of the licensing sub-committees, will result in an increase in the total annual amount paid of £10,514.

North Yorkshire Council was created on April 1 to replace the eight county, borough and district councils in the biggest reorganisation of local government in the county since 1974.

Councillors volunteer for their roles so they are not officially paid but receive an annual basic allowance, which according to the panel compensates for their time and “conscientious fulfilment of duties”.

Councillors in North Yorkshire are set to vote on whether to give themselves a £1,500 pay increase.

North Yorkshire Council‘s independent remuneration panel has recommended the 90 elected councillors’ annual basic allowance is increased from £15,500 to £17,000.

The 10% uplift, along with other increases for councillors with special responsibility allowances, will mean council tax payers have to foot an extra £145,000 each year.

North Yorkshire councillors are already among the highest paid in the country. A report by the four-person independent remuneration panel lists them as the fourth-best rewarded in a table of 18 local authorities. If councillors accept the proposed increase, only councillors in the table from Leeds and Birmingham will receive higher basic allowances.

Panel chair Keith Trotter said the increased workload caused by the creation of North Yorkshire Council, inflation and the cost of living as reasons for the recommendation.

Mr Trotter said:

“Councillors volunteer for their roles. They are not employees and are not paid at a commercial rate for their time. However, the allowances should not be set at a level which acts as a disincentive to conscientious performance of duties, or which does not reflect the considerable time commitment required for the role.

“Setting a fair and proportionate basic allowance and special responsibility allowance that reflects the workload of councillors in the newly established council has been a complex task.

“The allowances paid in similar local authorities have been reviewed and inflation, cost of living pressures and public sector pay rises have also been taken into account, as have submissions from councillors themselves about their current and future workload.”

The proposed £1,500 increase in the annual basic allowance from £15,500 to £17,000 will result in an increase in the total annual amount paid of £135,000.

The proposed two per cent increase in the special responsibility allowances paid, with the exception of sessional payments to chairs of the licensing sub-committees, will result in an increase in the total annual amount paid of £10,514.

Mr Trotter said:

“I acknowledge that in absolute terms this may be seen as an increase in payments to councillors, but it is important to note that the increased burden upon councillors as work previously undertaken by 319 councillors is now undertaken by 90.

“This increase is also in the context of savings of £714,621 made in 2023/24 and in being 0.01 per cent of the overall council budget of £1.4 billion.”

‘Allowances should not be a barrier’

Carl Les

North Yorkshire Council’s ruling Conservative executive will consider the panel’s proposals on November 7 before the full council votes on whether to accept them on November 15.

Council leader, Cllr Carl Les, whose special responsibility budget for leading the local authority looks set to rise from £39,654 to £40,447, said:

“The level at which allowances are set should not be a barrier that could prevent anyone from standing as a councillor, regardless of such things as age, personal circumstances and employment.

“It will be up to each councillor to decide, at the full council meeting in November, whether to take all, some or none of the proposed allowances.”

North Yorkshire Council was created on April 1 to replace the eight county, borough and district councils in the biggest reorganisation of local government in the county since 1974.

Councillors volunteer for their roles so they are not officially paid but receive an annual basic allowance, which according to the panel compensates for their time and “conscientious fulfilment of duties”.