An experienced and independent panel is recommending that the allowances payable to Suffolk Coastal’s councillors should be raised by over £1,000 to take account of their additional responsibilities and bring them closer into line with other councils.

The proposals will now be considered by the Full Council next week (Thursday, March 27) and the meeting will consider whether to accept the proposed scheme.

“This is the first comprehensive review of the work done by our councillors, and the allowances they receive in return. It recognises the increasing demands on councillors’ time, particularly the senior members,” said Cllr Ray Herring, Leader of Suffolk Coastal.

“The panel was made up of three people who are completely independent of the Council and have concluded that we have significantly fallen behind nationally when compared to most other councils. When they last reported in 2003 we took the view that the Council’s finances were such that we could not afford to properly reward the efforts of our councillors at that time.

“However, it is largely due to the efforts of our councillors that Suffolk Coastal have successfully delivered real value for money and developed into a top performing council over recent years.  Our current budget position will allow allowances to better reflect the workloads of our councillors” added Cllr Herring.

The three people on the Independent Panel all have considerable experience and expertise from having been on various independent remuneration panels in the county.

Their report to Full Council states that the general workload of councillors ‘is higher than is reflected by the current scheme’, partly because previous Panel recommendations were not fully implemented. Raising the Suffolk Coastal basic allowance to £4,000 will, according to the Panel, only just catch up with the national average.