Cllrs Allowances & Expenses 2015/16 – 2018/19 in three graphs

Once again we have crunched the data on our Cllrs allowances & expenses and reproduced the data in three graphs which show what they have received in 2018/19, what they each received between May 2015 and May 2019, and finally the totals for each financial year they were in office.  Expenses include – subsistence (food drink) Travel, eg carers allowance, train fares, taxi costs, food etc and other allowances, eg Hotel stays for conferences.

The Combined total for all elected Cllrs for the financial year 2018/19 was £335,557. The graph below derived from a spreadsheet sent by Folkestone & Hythe District Council also contained another Data Breach. The ICO have been informed.

In the May 2019 elections a number of the Cllrs were culled by the electorate. Each of those who lost their seats will no doubt miss the considerable amounts of monies they received via their allowances and expenses. Former Cllr Rory Love  who received £76,116.35 for his four years in office, will forgo on average £19,000 per year. Ouch! Nor will the complete shit -former Cllr Alan Ewart James receive on average £16,000 a year. And former Chairman of the Council, Cllr David Owen, wouldn’t have to sell his camper van if he hadn’t lost his seat, and lost on average £11,500 per year. The loss of allowances & expenses for those culled will come as a shock to their financial systems. However, one really should not shed a tear for the culled Cllrs as the like of Cllr Pascoe and Cllr Love continue to receive allowances and expenses from their position on Kent County Council.

As a well known supermarket says, “every little helps” but not anymore for many of them. All Cllrs who lost their seats, did so in large measure because of Cllr David Monk controlling and authoritative style of leadership; which did not help any of the conservative candidates prospects.

The two Cllrs who claimed least after serving all four years in office, as F&HDC Cllrs, were former Cllr Frank McKenna, pictured (Folkestone East) and former Cllr Susie Govett (New Romney) pictured, who respectively claimed £20,583 and £20,921. Thank you for your service and contribution to our wonderful district.

 

Both these former Cllrs were certainly vocal in their own way. Former Cllr Govett raising the £320 lunch, giving her voice to planning issues and of course overview & scrutiny where she and former Cllr Mckenna both raised the issues of 800 odd pages to plough through. This they said couldn’t receive the scrutiny needed. They served us well.

Now the combined totals for all Cllrs for each year is set out in the graph below. And for all four years our Cllrs have received in Allowances & Expenses £1,256,202.

Cllrs Allowances & Expenses are governed by Part 9 of Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Constitution

Allowances and Expenses are broken down as follows

• Basic Allowance recognises the time devoted by all councillors to their work, including meetings of the Council, Cabinet, committees and sub- committees, representation of the Council on outside bodies, meetings with constituents and all incidental costs;

• Special Responsibility Allowances recognise the time devoted by those councillors who have significant extra responsibilities (e.g. leadership of the Council and of political groups, membership of the Cabinet and chairmanship of committees), but also reflect an element of voluntary public service;

• All payments made are gross amounts which are subject to deduction of tax where appropriate.

Were the 30 Cllrs, all elected in May 2015 and who held office until May 2019 value for money? Some of them for sure, others, well, we will leave you to decide that.

The Shepwayvox Team

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