Anger as councillor is given 'unnecessary' role and an allowance of £10,000

The extra post, confirmed at a meeting on Wednesday, means 30 of the 49 Conservatives on the council now earn “special responsibility allowances” (SRA )on top of their "basic allowance" of £11,732.

The total number would be 31, but one of the eight Cabinet seats, which attracts an SRA of £15,252, is vacant.

The cost to the taxpayer of the 30 SRAs is £315,888, based on figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats.

The basic allowance is payable to all councillors, whereas SRAs are payable to those in positions which require extra time and effort on council business.

Three of the eight-strong Liberal Democrat group also earn SRAs, with the highest at £7,039, earned by Opposition Leader David Nolan.

However there is a striking contrast between the average earned by Conservative councillors in SRAs - £6,446 - to the Lib Dems, who average £1,451 each.

Coun Nolan said the new post - that of review panel chairman - is hard to justify “particularly when they are telling employees to make savings in the back office”.

He also claimed the post - given to Coun Ben Weeks - was “unnecessary in view of the workload”.

There are already two review panel chairmen, each on a special responsibility allowance of £10,089, and since 2017 Coun Nolan said the panels had completed reviews into just three issues: floods, town and parish communications and wind farm funds.

He said: “What really annoyed us (at Wednesday’s meeting) was that it was proposed and seconded and then they immediately put it to the vote to avoid any debate.

“If you said to a resident: ‘Do we need a third panel chair or the potholes fixed?’, I’m sure we know what the answer is.”

But Coun Weeks said the other panels had a full programme for the rest of the year, and the idea was that the new panel could look at issues more quickly as they come up.

He said: "I was asked if I wanted to take it on and I said I'd be very happy to do it."

Cabinet member Coun Mike Stathers claimed it was “all about capacity”, adding: “The workload for review panels is so great that we would overload the existing system.

“We need something that will consider issues as they arise at short notice and require urgent attention.”

The full cost of all 67 East Riding councillors, including basic and special allowances, is £1.1 million.

Meanwhile Lib Dem councillors aiming to win more seats at Hull’s local elections have pledged to cut the number of SRAs.

They said it was “shameful” that in an era of austerity “every one of the 31 Labour councillors receives an extra responsibility allowance.”