Councillors and the city mayor in Bristol have rejected recommendations to raise allowances, despite fears they were being ‘undervalued’.
An independent remuneration panel had recommended increasing the basic allowance by £970 to £12,500, with mayor George Ferguson receiving an £8,605 hike to an allowance of £75,000.
However Ferguson and councillors voted against the measures at the town hall’s full council meeting last night.
In its report, the remuneration panel had warned the basic allowance ‘does fall short of what might reasonably be expected to support councillors in a strategically important city like Bristol’.
‘There is no justification, in our view, in maintaining a position where Bristol City councillors are significantly under-valued through the allowances scheme compared to councillors in these other core cities,’ the panel’s report added.
The news came after councillors in West Berkshire approved a 16.5% rise in allowances. Measures were slammed by trade union Unison, which argued council staff had received an 18% real terms pay cut since 2010.
