1,400 per cent increase in Arun councillor's allowance

The eye-catching amount has been recommended to be paid to the chairman of the council's audit committee.

It will take current chairman Barbara Oakley's special responsibility allowance for the role from 250 to 3,750.

The recommendation for the rise will begin to be debated tonight.

Councillors on the governance committee will discuss the proposals made by the council's independent panel. The final decision will be made by all councillors on September 2.

The panel's four members say the audit committee chairman should receive extra money because they agreed with several councillors the 250 payment was inadequate and out of line with the council's other main committees.

The panel's report said: "While the panel recognised this committee meets less frequently than other committees, there has been an increase in workload and its work is of increasing importance involving occasional large investigations."

It adds comparisons with other councils were hard to find. But those which were available showed Arun's payment was well below that for audit committee chairmen elsewhere.

Former district councillor Hugh Coster, the deputy chairman of Bognor Regis Civic Society, said: "Giving themselves an increase is the wrong message for councillors to send out at this particular time.

"We are all having to watch the money because of the straitened economic circumstances of the country.

"Any increase that will fall upon the council tax payer, as this will, is to be regretted.

"Councillors should regard it as a privilege to serve the electors rather than be concerned with claiming expenses."

The independent panel's recommendations will see the council's overall bill for members' allowances rise by 2.15 per cent in the current year from 416,150 to 425,102.

Within this figure is a four per cent rise for every councillor who will see the basic allowance go up from 4,685 to 4,870. This is the first increase since 2007-08.

The panel's report said: "Interviews with backbench councillors, in particular, highlighted a concern the basic allowance did not adequately reflect the workload, which in most instances, had increased.

"Councillors felt the current basic allowance would not encourage younger people to stand for election and some even suggested they were out of pocket."

As well as the basic allowance, a range of special responsibility allowances are payable to council members for extra duties.

These usually involve chairing or belonging to busy committees or being a member of the decision-making cabinet.

Some of these allowances are proposed to be increased '“ usually by four per cent. Others are in line for various decreases. They involve the development control and licensing committees where the workload has shrunk in the past year.

A 340 IT allowance for every councillor is likely to stay unchanged.

Any increases will take effect on September 1 and will be backdated to April 1. Decreases will also come into force on September 1 but will not be backdated.

Proposals

Leader - 14,196 (currently 13,650)

* Opposition groups leaders - 9,369 (currently 10,650)

* Cabinet member - 8,320 (currently 8,000)

* Chairman - 7,800 (currently 7,500)

Chairman of:

* Development control - 1,980 (currently 2,750)

* Licensing - 3,250 (currently 3,900)

* Performance scrutiny - 1,607 (currently 2,000)

* Policy scrutiny - 4,870 (currently 5,000)

* Audit - 3,750 (currently 250)

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