West Berks councillors to vote on giving themselves five per cent rise in allowances

Councillors in West Berkshire will tonight (Thursday) decide whether or not to give themselves a five per cent rise in allowances.

That means an extra £450 in the pockets of the average elected member.

The move comes at a politically awkward time for the Liberal Democrat-run authority, as it is still in the midst of ‘clawing back’ significant sums of money from schools who have cash in the bank.

The council has gone some way to U-turn on that, by saying that the initial £2.4m it was asking back may now not be quite that much.

But the rise in allowances will be uncomfortable for some to accept, bearing in mind the council’s financial black hole predictions of nearly £10m.

It also has hiring freezes on, and is clamping down on spending – without actually saying it is cutting services.

The rationale goes that the West Berkshire councillors haven’t had a raise since 2020, and they are the lowest paid (apart from Wokingham) of all the Berkshire councils.

A big report on why they should get the rise in allowances goes before full council tonight (Thursday, September 26).

If accepted it will mean allowances all councillors are each entitled to increase from £8,289 per annum to £8,768 per annum.

The more senior councillors get more, with the leader of the council on 2.5 times the basic allowance, meaning he gets £21,920.