FIGURES revealing exactly how much each of Barnsley’s 63 councillors were paid in allowances and expenses were revealed this week.
There are 63 councillors, three in each ward, and each receives a basic allowance of £10,870. This was an increase of one per cent on the year before, but it remains lower than the £10,975 they were paid seven years ago.
Back then, in response to huge budget cuts from central government, councillors voted to cut their own pay by five per cent, and it didn’t increase at all until 2015/16.
In addition to this basic allowance, some councillors receive special responsibility pay for carrying out extra duties, such as serving on the council’s ruling cabinet, or chairing committees such as planning or licensing.
Council leader Steve Houghton was paid the most at just over £37,000, which included a total of £311 in expenses, all of it for travel.
Deputy leader Coun Jim Andrews was second at just over £28,000, including £240 travel expenses.
Some councillors did not serve throughout the whole financial year, which is why their totals are lower. There were 19 councillors who did not claim any expenses over their basic allowance and special responsibility pay.
Of those, seven councillors only received their basic allowance of £10,870: Jack Carr, Alice Cave, Annette Gollick, Dorothy Higginbottom, Kath Mitchell, Pauline Phillips and Kevin Williams.
An eighth councillor, Steve Green, the new Mayor of Barnsley, was paid even less at £10,426. He has declined to accept any of the rises in recent years.
“I still get what I got when I came onto the council,” he told the Chronicle. “I don’t claim anything else, never have.
“Given the financial pressures faced by the council, and council staff, I decided not to accept the rises.”
Councillors Nicola Sumner, Joanne Murray, Emma Dures and Donna Green also claimed nothing over their basic allowance, but were not on the council for the whole year.
The total paid to all councillors in allowances and expenses for the financial year to March 31 this year was £947,241.44 - this works out at 0.7 per cent increase on the total paid last year.
