FI15538

Request

  1. Please can you confirm the cost of councillor's wages for each of the last ten years?
  2. Please can you confirm the process of how these wages are calculated and the process for deciding the level of wages?
  3. Please can you confirm the level of expenses paid to councillors in each of the last ten years? Who signs off on these expenses?
  4. Please can you confirm the amount of expenses that have been claimed by council employees in the last five years please? A value for each year would be appreciated?
  5. Please can you confirm the land assets value that is owned by the council?
  6. Please can you confirm the income that is generated by the land owned by the council in the last five years?
  7. Please can you confirm how much land assets has been sold off in the last five years

Response

  1. Councillors do not receive wages as they are not employees of the Council. However, councillors do receive a number of allowances. All councillors receive a Basic Allowance. Some councillors may also receive a Special Responsibility Allowance depending on if they hold a post such as a Cabinet Member, Committee Chairman, etc. This information is available on our website at https://www.dover.gov.uk/Council--Democracy/Allowances/Councillor-Allowances.aspx.
  2. As previously stated, councillors do not receive wages as they are not employees of the Council. In accordance with The Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003, the Council has formed an Independent Remuneration Panel to make recommendations on the level of allowances for councillors. The Independent Remuneration Panel has set an upper limit of allowances that they feel the Council should receive. In most, cases the Council has set an allowance lower than that level. The full Council must consider these recommendations when setting the level of allowances. The scheme is usually set between January to March each year at a meeting of the full Council and voted upon by councillors. A record of this can be found in the Agenda and Minutes of the relevant full Council meetings on our website, which also includes the Independent Remuneration Panel’s recommended upper levels.
  3. The amount of expenses received by individual councillors going back to 2011 is available on our website at https://www.dover.gov.uk/Council--Democracy/Allowances/Councillor-Allowances.aspx.  The expenses are not “signed off” in the sense that an employee’s expenses would be signed off. If the claim for expenses from a councillor is consistent with the Members’ Allowances Scheme, they are passed to payroll to pay. If there is any question over a submission from a councillor being consistent with the Members Allowances Scheme it will be referred to the Head of Corporate Services and Democracy who will discuss it with the councillor concerned before making a decision on the matter.
  4. As follows:
    1. 2024/25 (to January 2025)         £63,432.98
    2. 2023/24                                          £86,337.39
    3. 2022/23                                          £122,526.89
    4. 2021/22                                          £81,507.24
    5. 2020/21                                          £75,105.93
  5. This information is available on the Council’s website at https://www.dover.gov.uk/Corporate-Information/Financial-Information/PDF/Draft-Statement-of-Accounts-202324.pdf.
  6. £85,000 over the last 5 years.
  7. As follows:
    1. 2023/24             3 small plots     £13,250
    2. 2022/23             1 small plot       £10,000
    3. 2021/22             None
    4. 2020/21             None
    5. 2019/20             3 lots                  £97,000