The Interim Democratic Services Manager presented a report which asked the Committee to provide its views in respect of the draft Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales report. Any response would be submitted to the IRPW and the Welsh Local Government Association by the deadline of 26 November 2021, he advised.

He explained that the draft report proposed some changes to the current remuneration prescribed for Elected Members at Principal (County Borough) and Town and Community Council levels. He highlighted the key elements of the draft report as listed at 4.2 onwards of the report.

The Interim Democratic Services Manager highlighted the key factors underpinning the Panel’s determination which were listed at 3.21 of the draft report. He added that the draft report also covered changes and or requirements regarding Supporting the work of local authority elected members, Specific or additional senior salaries, Job Sharing Arrangements, Assistants to the Executive as well as local government pension scheme (LGPS) provision.

He highlighted the points made at 3.2 of the draft report regarding Member security in light of the recent tragic death of Sir David Amess MP. This was something that had been highlighted to himself and the Group Manager – Legal and Democratic Services and was being looked at more closely following the tragedy, i.e. for the continued safety of Members undertaking their roles and responsibilities.

A Member believed that comments should not be made on the sum of money that the Independent Remuneration Panel have proposed for Members, as this was an organisation separate from local government and therefore was impartial.

A Member stated that the considerations by the IRP should have been linked to the boundary change review. He explained that many large areas have multi-Member wards and that some Members in these Wards were more active than others. This had caused the workload of many of the more active Members to increase drastically while less active Members take on less of that work for the same remuneration. He added that if he were re-elected in the next elections and due to the boundary change, his workload could triple while the remuneration was the same as smaller wards.

The Chairperson agreed that it was a difficult situation for Members to be in, ie multi-member wards as well as wards of different sizes. The Chairperson commented on determination 10 and 11 of the IRP draft report stating that in the past with regards to Members’ internet, phone and other electronics, Members have stated that it was not necessary for these to be provided as they believed it was common to have this infrastructure in place. She asked what Members views on this was now, as the demand for remote working has increased. She raised this as it had been noticed many Councillors were regularly having connection issues during or before a meeting.

The Interim Democratic Services Manager believed that this was something BCBC would be looking into as would all local authorities going forward with continued remote and hybrid working being likely for the long term future. He added that work was being undertaken in the Council Chamber and Committee Rooms to facilitate meetings in a hybrid manner. Work on the Council Chamber was scheduled to start sometime in the new year and the Committee rooms in December of this year. He added that risk assessment forms were being developed for Members to complete, whereby they needed to pass certain health and safety criteria, in order to attend a meeting in the Council Offices. If they were unable to pass the criteria, they would  continue to attend the meeting remotely.

RESOLVED:                    That the Committee:

1. Noted the content of the report;

2. Provided response in respect of the IRPW Draft Annual Report 2022-23;

3. Approved that any response of the Committee be submitted to the IRPW and the WLGA by the deadline of 26 November 2021.