Councillors: we are worth the money

Adrian Busby, leader of South Bucks District Council, received £11,680.50 in allowances in 2007-8 but claimed no expenses. He is able to manage his duties as council leader whilst simultaneously holding down a job.
Martin Tett on the other hand, a cabinet member on the county council who received £30,210 in allowances and expenses in the same year, does not have a day job and says the role is too time consuming to consider doing one.
As leader of SBDC Cllr Busby, who represents Beaconsfield North, claimed £11,680 in allowances - including a basic allowance of £2,197 to which all SBDC councillors are entitled, a special responsibility allowance of £8,990.54 and an IT allowance of £250.
Cllr Busby, who is self employed, said: "I can work my work commitments around Council commitments and vice versa. Some weeks I am involved in council work every day, some weeks it will also include evenings and some weeks it may be less, but you are on call pretty much 24/7 for the people who elected you.
"The allowances paid were never designed to recompense people on the basis of some kind of hourly rate and in my opinion never should be. Individuals get into local politics for a whole host of different personal reasons but financial reward is not and I believe should not be one of them.
"On the whole the system works OK . It does form a kind of contract between the councillor and those who elected them and it is recognition of the commitment we are making to them.
"My allowances are the highest and that is an attempt by the Allowance panel to acknowledge the commitment I make each year being leader to the residents of South Bucks."
Cllr Tett, who represents The Chalfonts and Seer Green on BCC, is the portfolio holder for strategic planning. He receives a basic allowance of £10,482, along with all BCC councillors, and a special responsibility allowance of £19,728 both of which are taxable. He claimed £3,261 in mileage and £229 in subsistence in 2007-8 and describes his role at the council, which has budget of over £650 million and over 10,000 staff as "full time including evenings and weekends." He receives no pension.
His role includes running three major county services - strategic planning, waste and economic development - in addition to
all the day to day work of "fighting for the interests of the people of my
area."
He said he had been "amazed at the enormous time commitment involved and the
professional skills required to do the job."
Asked how he felt about supporting his family on his allowance of £30,000 he said: "No relatively young professional
person would do this job for the money. I could earn far more as a business consultant. However, this role gives me enormous personal satisfaction and the ability to really make a difference on resolving many of the issues that have annoyed me as a South Bucks resident for over 25 years."
He added: "My personal view on allowances is I would hate to see a situation where qualified people were unable to stand for election unless they were
personally rich or had highly paid second jobs. The county needs able people from all backgrounds to become councillors and contribute their experience in the best interests of the people of the county."
Allowances at both county and district level are set at a level recommended by an independent panel.

Councillors on Beaconsfield Town Council are entitled to claim an allowance for the first time this year, but an amount has not yet been set. The allowance is being brought in to ensure that people from lower incomes, or requiring childcare to attend meetings, able to become councillors, said Cllr Les Davies, Mayor.
He said: "There has been a change in the rules that allow parish councils to pay an allowance. We are adopting this because several councillors felt it was our duty to be more inclusive." So far councillors have not made any claims, even for mileage or phone costs. The amount of the allowance has not yet been set.
Neither do those on Gerrards Cross Parish Council claim anything even for mileage or phone calls.
Diana Hepburn-Park, clerk, said: "There's an allowance that we can claim,but nobody has ever wanted to, so we haven't even set the amount. None of the current councillors have ever claimed expenses. We did have one councillor once who didn't drive, and he claimed for the ocassional train journey."