Councillor Costs Revealed

Wrexham Council has published the elected members allowances for April 2011 to March 2012. This is the pay and expenses that the councillors get, listed per councillor.

The total sum spent was £848,866.36 , with £828k of that being the ‘basic’ wages and £10k being expenses on top. This does not included the costs of the provision of other materials eg. laptops.

Every councillor gets £12,681 basic pay per year, and if a councillor has a ‘special responsibility’ they get extra on top. The basic pay totalled £655,079 with the ‘extras’ for special responsibilities adding £173k on top.

Councillors can also claim mileage, the highest claim being Joan Lowe who represents Penycae & Ruabon South of £1762.85 , and thirty councillors claimed nothing for mileage. Lowe was also the highest mileage claimer for the previous two years – of £1,963.20 in 10/11 & £1,433.60 in 09/10. She was second highest  in 08/09 with a claim of £1,365.60 – a grand total of £6525.25 over the four years.

There is a column for ‘expenses’ (non mileage) which totals £278.30 made up of just six councillors – RJ Dutton £39.50 , MJ Edwards £35.50, P Jeffares £34.10, OA Jones £85.05 J Lowe £77.00 and PH Pemberton £7.15. We will be able to report back in the future exactly what they were for as we will be inspecting the receipts.

No councillors declined to take their basic allowances so all received payment for being councillors. The full details can be found on the council site here.

Wrexhamites will get to decide on May 3rd who will receive around £850,000 of their money in the forthcoming local elections – we sent every candidate a personal letter asking them some questions – you can see their answers (those who replied!) in our Election Coverage page here.