More than half a million pounds was given to Isle of Wight councillors, collectively, for the role they play in the authority.
Annual figures have been revealed from the local authority, detailing how much it handed elected representatives in allowances in the last year.
Overall, the council paid out £512,726.87 to 40 councillors between March 2022 and April 2023.
Councillors received a basic allowance of £8,832 but some members receive a special responsibility allowance for other positions they hold on the authority, such as leader, cabinet member, group leader or chair and vice-chair of a committee.
Isle of Wight Council leader, Councillor Lora Peacey-Wilcox, received the most — the basic allowance, a £17,664 special allowance and £1,533.49 in travel and subsistence allowances — for a total of £28,029.49.
Councillor Ian Stephens, the deputy leader, received the second most — £21,557.35 — with a special allowance of £11,040 on top of his basic one and claiming £1,685.35 in travel and subsistence allowances.
Cllr Julie Jones-Evans, cabinet member for economy, regeneration, culture and leisure claimed the most travel and subsistence allowances, of £1,783.06 — and along with her basic and special allowance received £19,447.06
All councillors receive an on-Island travel allowance which covers them for journeys taken to and from the council headquarters. It is calculated for each member using a formula based on the distance from their home to County Hall in Newport and also takes into account the position the councillor holds.
For example, councillors in Newport get paid less than those in Freshwater. Only one councillor, Councillor Clare Mosdell, opted out of receiving the on-Island travel allowance, and only received the basic councillor allowance.
Members are also allowed to claim expenses for mainland travel and subsistence they incur while on council business. The authority says for some councillors this will be higher than other members as they represent the Isle of Wight Council on national boards.
No claims were made for any dependent carer allowances — which can be given to a councillor who has a dependant child under the age of 14 living with them or they care for a dependant elderly or disabled person.
This allowance is used by authorities to encourage more into public office so there is cover for care when they are doing council business.
Old farts leave the young alone
And that is why us poor cash cow’s are being milked dry !!!!!!!!!
Why are we paying for them to travel to work ???,,?????.
Surely they should be using the fleet of electric cars we pay for …
Can’t believe they get more travel allowance if they are in a more senior role !!!!!.
A mile is a mile !!!!!
And then they have the nerve to expect us the cash cow’s to Respect them…
No wonder all their photos are smirking ……
Fat wallets/purses ……
Our wallets contain moths ……
I’m guessing that Miss “Sensible” didn’t get that GCSE in English – or maths for that matter. The extra travel allowances are paid in respect of extra travel – more meetings etc – for senior roles.
If anybody’s really concerned at the waste of public money, take a look at the bunch of wastrels sitting in Whitehall. Apprently we are now paying for Bozo’s legal defence against charges of illegal activity while in office.
Nothing our piddly little Council could do compares with the monumental sums thrown away from Westminster (PPE, HS2, sending immigrants to Rwanda …)
Read it again !!!!
It’s calculated for each member,using a formula based on the distance from their home to County Hall Newport, and takes into account the position the councillor holds……
And yes i did pass all my exams with flying colours….
Thanks for your concern…..
I am not disappointed by the thumbs down! Lol see what I mean when you read it properly !!!!!!!!!!
And it is about the wastrels on the island , not Bojo etc …….
They could have used the £2 bus service they harp on about as well
28k won’t make a fat wallet….. but a few brown envelopes will
What a waste of our money..and what exactly do they do FA just lining their own pockets
That’s over £12800 each. Disgusting.
Just pretend councillors . no VfM … no real scrutiny of the spend and most not worth the payments that were made … over half a million £’s for what .. chaos and mayhem !!
Councillors are a waste of time and money.
They are as much use as a split C ondom
Get rid of them all and reduce our Council Tax
It will never g et any less only more the mind boggles what inflation will do to this figure
This would explain why there are cuts for us then wouldn’t it, even though the council tax has gone up this year
They don’t deserve it!!
Probably corrupt!! 😮
What Councillor isn’t.