WOULD you like to see your councillor's pay reflect the amount of work they do?

A cabinet member at Bournemouth Borough Council is calling for a checklist appraisal system to be adopted which would see councillors' allowances reflect the number of meetings they have attended as well as training undertaken and constituents' satisfaction.

Cllr Nick King, cabinet member for communications, said councillors should be held more accountable.

His calls come a day before the cabinet is set to vote on bumper pay rise for themselves, after an independent panel said councillors were underpaid.

If approved, the basic allowance for all councillors will increase by more than 17 per cent to £9,020.

But senior members will see their pay soar by more than 30 per cent and the leader of the council will be left with an allowance of just under £36,000.

As a member of Dorset Police Authority, Cllr King has an appraisal each year which looks at his meeting attendance record and what training he has undergone.

He said: "At the moment no one checks up on councillors and they are not held accountable for what they do.

"The only time is when there is an election and people have the chance to vote someone out. It would seem to me only fair and accountable if there was a way their pay was linked to the amount of work they do.

"There is no process whatsoever for people to be measured in terms of how effective they are. They should look at the person's attendance record, how much of a part they have played and whether constituents are happy with the service they have received from their councillor."

He said councillors could be independently appraised by people away from the political arena, such as the head of the standards board and chief executive of the council.

Cllr King, prospective parliamentary candidate for mid Dorset and north Poole, said such a scheme should be applied to all elected people, including MPs.

Claire Smith, Liberal Democrat group leader, said: "It is all very well saying I have attended this meeting and spent this many hours at the town hall', but it's the quality of what you are doing and the relevance of the meeting rather than the quantity."

She suggested councillors were "making up meetings to keep themselves busy".

She added: "I have walked out of meetings and said: That was a waste of my time and probably the officers' too'."

She said it would be very difficult to quantify the amount of time spent with people in the ward.

"For example I have just spent an hour talking to two constituents while I was walking my dog. Would I count that as well?"

  • See letters on pages 18-19.