Council Leader Richard Farnell in line for a 51% rise!

Councillor Richard Farnell, the leader of Rochdale Borough Council

Council tax payers and council staff facing redundancy or forced unpaid leave will be stunned to learn that the Leader of Rochdale Borough Council, Councillor Richard Farnell, is in line for a whopping 51% rise in allowances.

Councillor Farnell currently receives a Basic Allowance of £7,812 plus a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) as leader of £23,412, totalling £31,224.

The Council is considering raising the Basic Allowance for councillors by 34% to £10,451, which Councillor Farnell would benefit from. In addition, the SRA for the leader is set at three times the basic allowance and so Councillor Farnell's SRA as leader will rise from the current £23,412 to £31,353. Added to his Basic Allowance that will give Councillor Farnell £41,804. However, a new SRA is also being proposed, for being a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, of £5,500, which would increase Councillor Farnell's allowances to £47,304. That is a rise on his current allowances of £16,080 (51%).

Councillor Farnell said: “Every councillor understands how sensitive this subject is but this is an independent report that has made recommendations based on national guidelines.

"People may not realise it but our councillors spend many, many hours week in, week out serving their local communities and they get the second lowest amount in the region.

"The law requires an independent panel to recommend allowances paid to all Members of the Council. I do not believe councillors should set their own pay. If the increases are agreed, councillors in Rochdale would still get below the Greater Manchester average.”

However, Councillor Farnell's justification based on what other councils pay was rejected by a previous Independent Remuneration Panel. The panel members said in a report in 2013: 'We are unanimously against the averaging that has also been suggested to us. It is clear that any such step, if followed more widely by local authorities, would simply push up allowances across the board by the mathematical factor involved in such arithmetical approaches. In any system there will be a lowest and a highest.'

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/106814/argument-for-increasing-councillors-allowances-rejected-by-previous-independent-remuneration-panel

Three years ago, former leader of the Council, Colin Lambert was accused of being out of touch when he tried to force through a huge rise of 31% for the then Rochdale Borough Chief Executive, Jim Taylor - public opinion was one of outrage.

The councillor taking the lead in criticising the huge pay hike at a time of austerity was Councillor Richard Farnell, he said it was the wrong decision and put forward the recommendation that the council should not accept the pay rise plan:

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/83970/council-overview-and-scrutiny-committee-propose-further-recommendations-regarding-chief-executive-pay-rise

A local Labour party member, who asked not to be named, said: "Richard Farnell unseated and replaced Colin Lambert as leader of the Labour Group and Rochdale Borough Council in part due to Lambert being 'out of touch' in trying to force through the Chief Exec's pay rise. It remains to be seen how 'out of touch' Councillor Farnell is; we will find out depending on the way he votes at the forthcoming meeting to decide if these, frankly immoral, increases go through or not. If he votes in favour his hypocrisy will be breathtaking."

The recommendation to increase allowances is to be considered at a meeting of the council to be held at Rochdale Town Hall on Wednesday 14 December.