oldnat (of Blether with Brian fame) has helpfully pointed out that Stirling council split their expenses figures, one set from April 2007 to 3rd May 2007 and the other from 4th May 2007 to March 2008. Shetland have done the same and I suspect (but couldn't find the info) that the same is true for Clackmannanshire. It seems that the Beeb 's geeks have not noticed this though - out of 467 councils in their spreadsheet 125 have an average cost per councillor below £6000. The obvious moral of the story is to check the source data...and not to trust the Beeb too much!
The revised table minus Clacks is below. Happily Orkney and Shetland are now bosom buddies in the table, not much difference between their costs. But I'm still puzzled by Midlothian and West Lothian Councils...why does a councillor in West Lothian cost on average £10,000 more than one in Midlothian? Anyone got any idea? Might dig a bit deeper into the council websites when time allows...
| Council | # Cllrs | Total cost* | Cost/cllr |
| West Lothian Council | 32 | £835,518.00 | £26,109.94 |
| Inverclyde Council | 20 | £474,598.35 | £23,729.92 |
| Argyll and Bute Council | 36 | £817,143.63 | £22,698.43 |
| Highland Council | 80 | £1,727,849.81 | £21,598.12 |
| North Lanarkshire Council | 70 | £1,478,710.00 | £21,124.43 |
| Edinburgh City Council | 58 | £1,216,614.85 | £20,976.12 |
| Scottish Borders Council | 34 | £698,538.00 | £20,545.24 |
| Shetland Islands Council | 22 | £446,618.20 | £20,300.83 |
| Orkney Islands Council | 21 | £425,911.34 | £20,281.49 |
| Western Isles Council | 31 | £624,554.00 | £20,146.90 |
| East Ayrshire Council | 32 | £634,824.94 | £19,838.28 |
| Aberdeenshire Council | 68 | £1,337,062.36 | £19,662.68 |
| Glasgow City Council | 79 | £1,544,427.00 | £19,549.71 |
| South Lanarkshire Council | 67 | £1,308,586.30 | £19,531.14 |
| East Lothian District Council | 23 | £440,939.00 | £19,171.26 |
| East Dunbartonshire Council | 24 | £459,825.02 | £19,159.38 |
| Moray Council | 26 | £496,496.00 | £19,096.00 |
| Dumfries and Galloway Council | 47 | £889,981.00 | £18,935.77 |
| Perth and Kinross Council | 41 | £761,610.87 | £18,575.87 |
| Angus Council | 29 | £536,249.00 | £18,491.34 |
| North Ayrshire Council | 30 | £554,398.84 | £18,479.96 |
| Aberdeen City Council | 43 | £794,498.00 | £18,476.70 |
| West Dunbartonshire Council | 22 | £406,113.12 | £18,459.69 |
| Stirling Council | 22 | £403,958.68 | £18,361.76 |
| Fife Council | 78 | £1,418,840.30 | £18,190.26 |
| East Renfrewshire Council | 20 | £350,773.00 | £17,538.65 |
| Falkirk Council | 32 | £545,823.55 | £17,056.99 |
| Renfrewshire Council | 40 | £671,787.24 | £16,794.68 |
| South Ayrshire Council | 30 | £494,514.00 | £16,483.80 |
| Dundee City Council | 29 | £477,115.38 | £16,452.25 |
| Midlothian Council | 18 | £293,157.27 | £16,286.52 |
| Clackmannanshire Council | 18 | ? | ? |
Source: BBC Research + oldnat's investigative powers
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Perhaps someone can help me out with the following...
BBC Research has produced an interesting list of councillor pay and expenses for 2007-08, broken down by government region and also by council. Glancing at the figures for Scotland (see table at the bottom of this post) I noticed huge variations in the cost per councillor. For example...
| Council | # Cllrs | Total cost* | Cost/cllr | ||
| Orkney Islands Council | 21 | £425,911.34 | £20,281.49 | ||
| Shetland Islands Council | 22 | £50,476.63 | £2,294.39 |
*Total cost = Pay, expenses and allowances for 2007-08.
No, I haven't got those numbers wrong. Can anyone shed some light on this? Why the vast discrepancy between two councils that, to an ignorant mainland loon at least, look like they should be broadly comparable? The only thing I could think of was the Shetland oil fund. But then again I'm pretty sure Clackmannanshire doesn't have one of those, yet they seem to be blessed with much cheaper councillors than Midlothian...
| Council | # Cllrs | Total cost* | Cost/cllr | |
| Midlothian Council | 18 | £293,157.27 | £16,286.52 | |
| Clackmannanshire Council | 18 | £69,934.61 | £3,885.26 |
Now for the really weird part. Despite the yawning chasm in the table above, Midlothian have the 4th lowest cost per councillor in Scotland. In fact it's actually Clackmannanshire that pips them to the bronze medal, albeit by a whopping £12,401.26 per councillor! In other words no council in Scotland has a cost per councillor between £3,885.26 and £16,286.52. What's going on?
To round things off, the 22 councillors of Stirling Council cost a total of £48,708.08, i.e. £2,214.00 per councillor. In contrast, the 32 councillors of West Lothian cost £835,518.00 in total, at an average of £26,109.94 per councillor. Why can 3 of our councils give us councillors at an average cost below £4,000, yet all the rest cost from £16,000-£26,000?!?
Now, there may well be a very good reason for this bizarrely skewed distribution of costs, in fact I really hope there is. If so I'd love to know what it is! Please respond via the comments box below.
| Council | # Cllrs | Total cost* | Cost/cllr |
| West Lothian Council | 32 | £835,518.00 | £26,109.94 |
| Inverclyde Council | 20 | £474,598.35 | £23,729.92 |
| Argyll and Bute Council | 36 | £817,143.63 | £22,698.43 |
| Highland Council | 80 | £1,727,849.81 | £21,598.12 |
| North Lanarkshire Council | 70 | £1,478,710.00 | £21,124.43 |
| Edinburgh City Council | 58 | £1,216,614.85 | £20,976.12 |
| Scottish Borders Council | 34 | £698,538.00 | £20,545.24 |
| Orkney Islands Council | 21 | £425,911.34 | £20,281.49 |
| Western Isles Council | 31 | £624,554.00 | £20,146.90 |
| East Ayrshire Council | 32 | £634,824.94 | £19,838.28 |
| Aberdeenshire Council | 68 | £1,337,062.36 | £19,662.68 |
| Glasgow City Council | 79 | £1,544,427.00 | £19,549.71 |
| South Lanarkshire Council | 67 | £1,308,586.30 | £19,531.14 |
| East Lothian District Council | 23 | £440,939.00 | £19,171.26 |
| East Dunbartonshire Council | 24 | £459,825.02 | £19,159.38 |
| Moray Council | 26 | £496,496.00 | £19,096.00 |
| Dumfries and Galloway Council | 47 | £889,981.00 | £18,935.77 |
| Perth and Kinross Council | 41 | £761,610.87 | £18,575.87 |
| Angus Council | 29 | £536,249.00 | £18,491.34 |
| North Ayrshire Council | 30 | £554,398.84 | £18,479.96 |
| Aberdeen City Council | 43 | £794,498.00 | £18,476.70 |
| West Dunbartonshire Council | 22 | £406,113.12 | £18,459.69 |
| Fife Council | 78 | £1,418,840.30 | £18,190.26 |
| East Renfrewshire Council | 20 | £350,773.00 | £17,538.65 |
| Falkirk Council | 32 | £545,823.55 | £17,056.99 |
| Renfrewshire Council | 40 | £671,787.24 | £16,794.68 |
| South Ayrshire Council | 30 | £494,514.00 | £16,483.80 |
| Dundee City Council | 29 | £477,115.38 | £16,452.25 |
| Midlothian Council | 18 | £293,157.27 | £16,286.52 |
| Clackmannanshire Council | 18 | £69,934.61 | £3,885.26 |
| Shetland Islands Council | 22 | £50,476.63 | £2,294.39 |
| Stirling Council | 22 | £48,708.08 | £2,214.00 |
Source: BBC Research
2 comments:
Councillor's pay is set in law, with councillors who have additional duties (eg chairing a committee) getting a bit more. It's possible that in smaller councils the high ratio of extra duties to councillors skews the pay upwards. Though this doesn't account for Clackmannanshire and Stirling's low costs for small numbers of councils. Another thing to take into account is the expenses: councillors serving constituents in remote islands will have higher travel costs as they will be paying for air and ferry travel. Those closer to Edinburgh - where they might be called for national meetings etc - and with a smaller geographical area to cover, should have lower travel expenses. All of which still doesn't explain why West Lothian tops the charts!
Yes, all good points.
From a quick glance through the detailed lists it seems like travel expenses can be highly variable, even within a council - anything from £0 to £4000+! Lots of "fact-finding" missions in there I expect. More excavations later...
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