An uplift to councillor allowances in Salford which will see mayor Paul Dennett earn £98,000 a year has been described as an “insult” to the city’s residents.
An independent remuneration panel recommended an increase to councillor allowances to match the time and effort required to fulfil the role.
The panel’s report noted that workloads for elected members in Salford ‘continue to increase both in volume and complexity’, with some spending between 50 and 80 hours a week on their council roles.
The report recommended a £1,200 increase in basic allowances for all councillors from £12,790 to £14,000, with the city mayor’s special allowance seven times higher than that.
It will see Mr Dennett pocket a total of £98,000 for the role, up from his current amount of £75,000.
He also takes home a special responsibility allowance of £5,847 for his role on the Greater Manchester Bee Network Committee.
The uplift was approved after 37 councillors voted in favour of the move, while the three Conservative and two Lib Dem councillors in the chamber voted against the proposal.
Coun Bob Clarke, leader of Salford Conservatives, said:
“Chair, I am concerned that during this period when the City Mayor rightly highlights that this Council is short of money, we are now presented with a report that increases the allowances by £144K to £1.4M per year.
“Half of the increase is purely the cost of the cabinet.
“The additional £144K would pay the winter fuel allowances for 480 pensioners within Salford and I know where we would rather see the money go.
“I know that the City Mayor has generously foregone some increases in the past, but I do not feel that the remuneration panel has gone about this in the wrong way.
“The multiplier of the annual allowances, as I understand it, was not officially ever agreed as the formula to be used, and I think it is wrong to use it now.
“We are here today with a backdrop of increasing inflation, pensioners who no longer receive the winter fuel allowances, rising council tax bills, and pressures on employees’ wages due to employers’ national insurance rises, not to mention the continuing increase in the cost of living.
“I feel that we should show solidarity with our residents and not take anything above a 3.5% rise of the allowance as it now stands; anything more than that would be an insult to the hard-working residents of Salford, who, let’s not forget, pay our allowances through council tax.
“So I ask you, City Mayor, to take this report back for further consideration, and if not, we will have no alternative but to vote against.”
He added:
“One final word is that I have taken on board all the comments that were made on Monday when I met the city mayor however to quote a couple of members, we need to have a moral compass and do the right thing by the residents of Salford and ensure that we are on their side.”
Labour Coun Mike McCusker said allowances for councillors have to increase or it could become “impossible” for some people in the city to afford to stand for public office.
Mr Dennett said: “I know councillors on this council are currently financially struggling, I know councillors who have given up representing people, because financially they can’t afford to do so, and they’ve needed to return to full-time employment.”
He added: “Local government is far too important to be seen as a stepping stone to Westminster and Whitehall, to be seen simply as a pathway to the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
“It currently is the poor relation of the British state. If we’re serious about local government, I encourage all of you to seek in your conscience supporting this direction of travel.”
The mayor pledged to donate the difference between his new allowance and the wage of an MP, which currently stands at £93,904.
