A COUNCIL leader who voted himself a pay rise of 37 per cent has defended the decision, comparing his role to the chairmanship of a billion-pound company.

Conservative councillor Keith Glazier, leader of East Sussex County Council, will now earn £46,700 a year in allowances.

The decision was taken last week by county councillors. They voted to pass the recommendations of a remuneration review panel, which included a nine per cent increase for all councillors and a 37 per cent bump in the extra allowance taken by the leader.

The allowance he receives for being leader – on top of his basic allowance for being a councillor – will increase 37 per cent from £25,113 to £34,440.

The move was slammed by Liberal Democrat councillor Sarah Osborne – the only “no” vote on the decision – who said at a time of cuts and planned library closures the decision was “ridiculous.”

Cllr Glazier told The Argus: “We are running an organisation of about £815 million per year.

“How many chairmen of businesses would be performing that task for 25 grand a year, I ask you?”

When challenged that the equivalent role in business would actually be the council’s chief executive (whose published salary range is £175,000 to £190,000), Cllr Glazier said: “The chief executive does the work but the chairman of the board is there to oversee the running of the company and that’s what I see my job as.”

He added: “The independent panel found historically the leader of the council had been woefully underpaid compared to neighbouring councils.

“You can either accept the hard work thew independent commission has put in or reject it.

“I’ve got colleagues taking home vastly more than that. If you look at Kent, Surrey, Essex, the leaders are all taking home sixty thousand.

“The timing isn’t good, but we have no say in the timing.

“We are making savings of £22 million, councillors need to keep their eyes focused, they need to spend every hour doing that.”

He said the cost of increases was less than savings found by a package of measures including removing councillors from the local government pension scheme and stopping them from claiming for printer ink and home phone lines.

Local councillors are not salaried but allowances in the region of £10,000 are paid in recognition of the time given to the role. Those with additional responsibilities are paid additional allowances.

In East Sussex the remuneration panel, carrying out its four-yearly review, recommended an increase in the basic allowance from £11,303 to £12,300.

This was in part a response to councillors’ removal from the local government pension scheme.

The report also stated £11,300 “was not sufficient to encourage a broader, more representative range of people to stand for election” but said the increase to £12,300 had “the aim of encouraging a greater cross section of the community to stand for election, in particular more women and younger people.”

After tax, the change should mean around £62.50 per month extra as an inducement to such prospective councillors.

The panel said changes to the leader’s allowances were designed to reflect the “norm” in other counties.

See our comment on his pay rise in today's The Argus on page 10.