Cheshire East Council has paid a total of £1,272,862.55 in allowances to Council Members during the previous financial year 2015-16, down £529.69 from the previous year.
Councillors receive a basic annual allowance of £11,443.83 on top of which general expenses are paid along with allowances for special responsibilities, subsistence, travel and dependants' carers.
The £1.27 million was divided between 111 councillors rather than the usual 82, due to last year being an election year - with £935,242 paid in basic allowances, £275,223 in special responsibility allowances and £60,215 in travel allowances.
The largest payments went to Cabinet members including the current leader Rachel Bailey who was paid a total of £30,155, which included a £16,300 special responsibility allowance and £3102 for travel which was the highest amount paid to an individual. Deputy Leader Cllr David Brown who was paid a total of £30,155, which also included a £16,300 special responsibility allowance.
Whilst the former leader Michael Jones, who announced his resignation in December 2015, was paid £38,108 which included a special allowance of £24,750.
Although payments to Directors of Council Owned Companies are not included in the Councils' Allowance scheme they were included in the figures released for completeness and show that an additional £119,585.44 was paid to directors, up from £92,766.85 the previous financial year. The highest payment of £11,048 was paid to Cllr Jamie Macrae.
The record pf payments for April 1st 2015 to 31st March 2016 are available to view on the Cheshire East Council website.
