Conwy councillors rake in £1million expenses

Oct 15 2009 by Samantha Castle, North Wales Weekly News

COUNTY councillors in Conwy racked in a whooping £1million in allowances last year.

Figures published recently on the council’s website show how 74 county councillors received over £1.039 million in allowances and up to £33,000 in travel expenses for the 2008/2009 financial year.

Out of the councillors listed 59 are currently elected members of the council who each received part or all of their basic allowance entitlement of up to £12,977 in order to carry out their basic duties. These duties include their ward work over a period of three full working days per week.

Cllr Meirion Hughes, finance and resource portfolio holder explained that councillors allowances are factored into the yearly budget and fluctuate year on year. He said: “Although last year’s councillors allowance total was at £1.039,399 million it was slightly over budget by £2,000, but despite this it was still well below year before’s total of £1,054 million.

“There is bound to be a natural increase each year due to certain overheads but we only went over the budget for councillors’ allowances by £2,000.

“It is the council’s policy to be as transparent as possible with public money that is why we publish these figures annually on our website.”

Up to 39 councillors out of the 74 listed for the financial year 2008/2009 also received a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA). With amounts varying between a minimum of £281.42 to a maximum allowance of £27.085 being received by the Council leader Cllr Dilwyn Roberts.

SRA is paid out to elected members holding, from time-to-time, chair or vice-chair Committee positions of responsibly, council leaders and Cabinet members.

Llanfairfechan Cllr Andrew Hinchliff explained why he received £2,700 SRA and over £2,000 travel expenses.

“I am currently either a member, chair or vice chair of over 50 committee groups so I have a vast combined responsibility. I have been a councillor for the past 10 years so I am involved in a lot of areas involving a lot of extra travel I am also a children’s home inspector for the council which requires travel, so you see it can all add up.”

Another councillor and non Cabinet member Cllr Stuart Anderson explained his high travel expense allowance of £2,221 was due to partnership responsibilities.

Councillor allowance report for 2008/2009 financial year can be found at www.conwy.gov.uk. Click on the council’s constitution.