Are town and parish councillors paid

Question

A simple question but are parish and town councillors paid

Answer 1

Legally, only elected councillors can be paid. Co-opted councillors cannot be paid.

In most cases councillors are unpaid, however there may a Chairman's allowance (ours is £300pa), and all councillors, irrespective of elected or co-opted may claim legitimate expenses.

If any Councillor (not the Chair) is paid, all, elected councillors must be paid the same.

The council can choose to pay the Chair and not other councillors. In this case a co-opted Councillor as Chair can be paid, but this stops when they stand down.

But in most cases and most councils councillors are unpaid.

Comments

I have been Chair of a PC for 5-years and have never received, nor requested, an allowance - what is this used for?

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Its to offset the costs of being a councillor so could be used for additional costs of equipment, for example. Needs to be recognised, however, that an allowance to the Chair (most often paid to a town Mayor to be honest) is taxable where a simple reimbursement of expenses, i.e. up to a maximum of whatever your council agrees, isn't.  Allowances to parish councillors are rare but where paid are set by your principal authority following a formal review.  The amount is taxable.  As has already been said, parish councillors can claim expenses so if it is agreed you can attend a training event outside of the parish, you could claim travel expenses for that.

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In our case: it is paid to the Chair under the assumption that they will not claim milage etc for events within the district and to cover any costs as the Chairman may choose.

It is also expected to be used for paying for cards/flowers for ill councillors or staff.