NEXT week councillors will be asked to vote on a potential £667 pay boost for Wiltshire councillors.

At Full Council on Tuesday, July 20 councillors will be asked to vote on increasing the allowances of elected members from £13,833 to £14,500 – an increase of 4.82 per cent.

It is also recommended that councillors should be able to claim up to £30 per hour for caring responsibilities and the inclusion of long-term sickness or parental leave.

The report, which will go before Wiltshire’s 98 elected councillors next week, says the current budget for allowances is £1,957,380.

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If the council approves the new rise the estimated full-year cost would be £2,051,004. The cost of sickness and travel expenses is not forecast, as this cannot be planned, the report continues.

This means there would be a 5.5 per cent increase in the current budget needed and would add further pressure to the estimated £45m budget gap on 2022/23 of £107,620.

In the current year, there is no provision for any increase and this would leave an overspend of £93,624.

The recommendations suggest that these overspends will be managed and mitigated by finding savings elsewhere in the council’s budget – which will go through the cabinet.

This rise, however, is just representative of the increase for councillors with no additional responsibilities.

The leader and deputy leader allowances will also increase from £34,583 to £36,000 and £27,665 to £29,000 respectively.

Councillors chairing various committees and holding portfolios would also see beneficial rises – their additional allowances increasing from £7,782 to £8,000.

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The same is not true of group leaders, however, as in these proposals the leader of the Conservative group, Richard Clewer, will see a £2,552 reduction and this reduction is across the board.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ian Thorn’s additional allowances will drop from £6,414 to £6,000.

Ernie Clark, who heads up the independents would see £497 less from his current additional allowance of £1,497 and Ricky Rogers of the Labour group would see a drop of £359 from £1,000 (£641).

The chairman of the council will see a cut from £13,833 to £8,000, as will the council's vice-chairman from £6,916 to £4,000.