Wolverhampton Council and opposition leaders in line for pay rise - but other members face allowance freeze

The leader of Wolverhampton Council is in line for a £178-a-year pay rise, taking his total remuneration to £45,662 a year.

Members of the council will be asked to approve the rise for leader of the ruling Labour group, Councillor Stephen Simkins, at tonight’s meeting of the council.

The leader of the principle opposition group, who will be Reform’s Councillor Celia Hibbert following this month’s elections, is set for a pay rise of £636 compared to her predecessor, Tory Councillor Simon Bennett - taking her total allowance to £28,340.

However, most allowances for councillors are set to be frozen at tonight’s meeting, the first since the elections.

Initial proposals follow a review by an independent remuneration panel, with amendments suggested following scrutiny by the council’s own governance and ethics committee.

It is recommended that the councillors’ basic allowance, which is paid to all councillors, be frozen at £13,340.

The deputy leader of the council, at the moment Councillor Steve Evans, will also see his special responsibility allowance frozen at £23,940, leaving his total pay unchanged at £37, 280.

The mayor’s allowance of £23,940 is set to remain unchanged.

The independent remuneration panel had recommended that the opposition leader’s special allowance should also be frozen, but the governance and ethics committee recommended it be increased from £14,364 to £15,000. The independent panel had further recommended that the special allowance given to the chairman of the planning committee - at present Councillor Paul Sweet - should be cut from £13,167 to £12,000, reducing his total remuneration from £26,507 to £25,340, but this was rejected by the governance and ethics committee, which said the payment should be unchanged.

The indpendent panel also recommended cuts to the chairmen of the audit, pensions, and governance and ethics committee by £470 to £11,500 a year, along with that of the scrutiny board chairman, but these were again rejected by the governance and ethics committee, which proposed they be kept at the present rate.

Councillors can choose to accept the recommendations of either the independent remuneration panel or those of the governance and ethics committees at tonight’s meeting.