ITEM 7

AT A MEETING of the INDEPENDENT REMUNERATION PANEL of the County Council held at The Castle, Winchester on Monday, 29 November 2004

PRESENT

G. Boutle; F.H.M. Quick; Dr. E. Waterman-Roberts

Also in attendance Mr. K.E. Tyson and Councillors Dr. R.J. Ellis and J.K .West

Appointment of Chairman

RESOLVED:

That Mr. G. Boutle be appointed Chairman of the Panel.

_________________________________________

MR. G. BOUTLE IN THE CHAIR

_________________________________________

The Panel received representations from Mr. Tyson and Councillors Dr. Ellis and West and gave consideration to written representations from Miss P.L. Bower-Johnson and Councillors L. Dunsdon; J. Glen; T. Knight; R.C. McIntosh; R Price and Jenny Wride.

Councillor Dr. R.J. Ellis

Councillor Ellis spoke of the responsibilities and the increasing workload of the chairman of the Health Review Committee and its scrutiny function. He said that the role of Chairman was different to the role of the Policy Review Committee Chairmen and there was no Executive Member to report to. He was of the opinion that the workload was more in line with that of an Executive Member and that the special responsibility allowance should reflect this.

Mr. K.E. Tyson

Mr. Tyson expressed the view that local authorities could not continue to increase council taxes and that ways should be found to reduce costs. He said that there were up to 22 different tiers of authority to be encountered by the public and contrasted it with Sweden where there were only 3. He also stated that he was appalled at the total amount of travel allowances paid to members. He proposed that members' allowances should be cut by 50% and that there should be an 8% reduction in staff.

Councillor J.K. West

Councillor West spoke of the work of the Regulatory Committee and his role as current Chairman. He said that the workload of the Chairman was at least equal to that of a Policy Review Committee Chairman and thought that the special responsibility allowance should reflect that. He was aware that the Panel were unable to give consideration to allowing members to receive additional special responsibility allowances for doing more than one job, but requested representations to be made to allow for second jobs to be paid at 50% of the rate due. He also said that MPs cycling allowance had been set at 20p per mile and that it would be appropriate for the County Councillors cycle rate to be at that level.

Following the presentations Members thanked Mr. Tyson for his presentation and gave consideration to the requests made orally and in writing. In making their deliberations they were aware that they were to carry out a full review of all special responsibility allowances next year and took the view that in most cases it would be inappropriate to adjust these allowances in advance of the full review. However, with regards to the special responsibility allowances for the Chairman and Vice-Chairman for the Health Review Committee, they were of the opinion that the increasing workload and the substantial differences between the work of that Committee and the Policy Review Committees warranted an interim increase of special responsibility allowance and RECOMMENDED that the special responsibility allowance for the Chairman of the Health Review Committee be increased by £2,600 per annum and the special responsibility allowance for the Vice-Chairman be increased by £650 per annum, both backdated to 1 April 2004.

Members were not of the opinion that the cycle allowance for Members should be increased and took the view that all travel allowances should remain tied to those paid to staff.

With regard to Councillor West's point on members carrying out two or more jobs being paid at 50% of the rate due for the second job, they were of the opinion that there could be some merit in this and that the County Council might wish to make appropriate representations on this point.

Consideration was given to Childcare and Dependants' Carers' Allowances and it was RECOMMENDED that, in future, these allowances should be tied to the same rate as paid by Hampshire Social Services.

Members gave consideration to the full review of special responsibility allowances which was to take place next year and agreed that they should initially meet in April 2005 to plan the review.

5mm311104