Allowances and Expenses

My allowances as a Cornwall Councillor are:

Basis Allowance: £11,976.16 per annum.  This is the allowance available to every Councillor.

Chairman: Children, Education and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee: £7,086.48 per annum.

Out of the above I fund postage, stationery (Council provides letter headed paper and business cards), telephone calls when away from Council offices (landline and mobile), home broadband connection, home office space and travelling expenses for all journeys other than those which are claimable, which are about 20% of my total journeys.

All expenses claimed are, before payment, subject to itemised details checked by Council officers and further subject to potential review by the Council's internal auditors (within the internal audit annual programme there is time allocated for reviewing councillors expenses).

The amounts paid to me by month, which as and when the Council's system allows will be displayed as presented in their itemised format, were:

July:              £47.00
August:           29.00
September:     44.30
October:         62.00
November:     95.50
December:      60.00
January:          78.50
February:      115.00
March:           86.00

The majority of the expenses are mileage, initially at 50p per mile reduced to 40p per mile from mid-January when Council adopted the mileage recommendation of the independent review panel.  I have made a few journeys by public transport and am committed, where possible, to use it as it costs less than the car mileage rate.

Not included in the above expenses are the costs of air travel to London paid directly by the Council; once for a Pension Fund meeting with certain investment managers and once for scrutiny training in Westminister.  One of the flights was to Gatwick where the Council also pre-purchased the rail travel to Victoria.  The costs of parking at Newquay airport are included in the stated expenses as is the cost of rail travel from London Docklands airport for the other flight.  In each case, travel was based on the lowest cost that the Council could secure.

Not included in the above is the parking permit provided by Cornwall Council.  This has been used infrequently as most meetings are at Council offices, including One Stop Shops, where on-site parking is generally available or are meetings within walking distance of Council offices.

Tea/coffee/water is available at Council offices, generally free of charge, as is the occasional lunchtime meal I have had at New County Hall when on all-day business.

Finally I have joined the Council's pension scheme which for councillors is a career average arrangement based on payment of 6% of alowances and is inferior to the final salary scheme available to staff.  At the time of writing this note I'm not sure as to the Council's payment to my pension.

I understand, as was the practice with Cornwall County Council, that the Council will publish in the local newspapers and on its website an annual statement of all allowances and expenses paid to each councillor.

Apathy, Anguish and Acceptance

Out deliverying leaflets today and the main message 'on the street' was "Why are we told how bad the situation really is?"  Of course the second most popular message was about a lack of interest and the perception that all politicians are in it for what they can make.  That spurs me to write a blog this weekend about my allowances and expenses as a councillor; thin cat rather than fat cat.

Well I regard the economic situation as very poor; of every £4 that the Government currently spends £1 is borrowed.  That we be OK in the short term however (a) we have an enormous national debt already, and (b) the current Government seems hell-bent on borrowing more in the coming years, if re-elected.

It's all rather like Cornwall Council where it is not possible to make massive early savings but rather gradually move towards a new approach to financial stewardship.  Go to fast and the whole system could collapse; go to quickly and we go broke.

Under Starter's Orders

Will Gordon Brown visit the Queen tomorrow? (likely) 

Will each Party make a 'big' announcement to kick start their campaign to seek to grab the headlines? (probable)

Will the election be conducted, by all involved, in a considered and fact based environment? (fat chance)

Will I lose 10lbs delivering leaflets and canvassing over the next four weeks? (hopefully)

Will the UK be a different place after the election? (maybe not initially.....)

COUNCILLOR ACTIVITES: MEETINGS

The first four days this week included the following meetings:

Monday: Audit Committee.
Tuesday: Political Party Group; Full Council and meeting with residents.
Wednesday: Pension Fund Committee; visit to Children's Home (some councillors, in their role of corporate parents, carry out monthly visits to every Children's Home in Cornwall) and a Parish Council meeting.
Thursday: Local Safeguarding Childen Board (attended as participating observer); meeting with Children, Schools and Families Portfolio Holder; agenda setting discussion for Scrutiny meeting.