Councillors received over £700k in allowances

Councillor Richard Farnell received £30,552

Rochdale Borough Council spent over £700,000 on allowances and expenses for councillors last year.

Research from the TaxPayers’ Alliance has revealed that for 2014-15 the council paid out £712,506 to councillors. Of the 386 (of 408) who responded to the request for information, 157 paid out more.

A breakdown shows each of the Borough’s 60 councillors received a basic allowance of £7,644, with some getting more because of their committee roles.

Council leader Richard Farnell was paid over £30,000 for the year - £22,908 as council leader, plus the basic allowance of £7,644.

Compared with authorities nationally, Rochdale pays out an above average basic allowance - but not when compared to the other nine Greater Manchester councils where only Trafford pays less.

The basic allowance has been unchanged for past three years, but total allowances and expenses paid out has risen from £689,353 in 2012/2013 to £712,506 in 2014/15.

Greater Manchester figures

Of the Greater Manchester local authorities that provided their overall amount, Wigan Council paid out the most to councillors in allowances and expenses with an overall 2014/2015 figure of £1,157,948.

Tameside Council was the second highest in the region with £1,112,038.

An annual figure wasn’t provided by Manchester City Council. With 96 councillors in its chamber, who all receive a basic allowance of £16,043 and with the council leader being paid £40,067, Manchester City Council paid out at least £1,580,195 — the highest in the region by far.

This estimated figure does not take into account expenses or additional allowances councillors receive for committee roles. The basic allowance for a councillor in Manchester is one of the highest in the country.

Neighbouring Oldham — a similar-sized authority to Rochdale — paid out £941,000 to its councillors during 2014/2015.