North East Derbyshire leaders to donate expenses increase to charity

North East Derbyshire District Council’s Conservative leader and deputy leader voted against the controversial 4.04 per cent increase to members’ allowances, which was approved by the majority of members to be backdated to April last year.

Councillor Alex Dale and Councillor Charlotte Cupit said however they understood other members’ decision to keep the cash, which was awarded following a blanket increase of £1,925 to council staff pay.

In a joint statement they said: “We know that this was a difficult decision for members, so as a Conservative group we had a ‘free vote’ where each member made up their own mind and voted to their own views.

“We could fully appreciate the reasons both for and against accepting the increase and we can understand why other members arrived at a different conclusion, but ultimately we decided to vote against accepting it.

“We will be donating the increases we receive this year to good causes and charities.

“We’ll each be paying half towards our chair’s appeal charity, SSAFA the Armed Forces Charity, and the other half we’re donating to local charities and causes in our respective patches.

“This is in line with what other Conservative councillors who also voted against the increases have told us they’ll be doing.”

Following the decision Labour member for North Wingfield Councillor Jayne Barry said she had taken steps to ensure she did not receive the increase and threw the gauntlet down to other members who had voted against it to put their money where their mouths were and come forward if they had done the same.

Several councillors spoke out against the increase, which will see basic allowances go up by just over £230 to £5,969.83 for 2022/23, while the leader and deputy leaders’ allocations would rise to £20,521.54 and £14,746.39 respectively, and cabinet members’ to £9,405.40.