Expenses and allowances for the last financial year have been published by BathNES council (although the web page appears to be intermittent). In the interests of transparency I thought I’d put them up here too just so that you know.

From my election last May until the end of March, I have been paid £6,702.01 in allowances. This is not technically a salary, although it is nearly all taxed (thank you Gordon Brown, you doubled my tax from 10% to 20%). It compensates for the hundreds of hours I spend on council business when I could be earning money with a real job. I pay for my printing, postage and phone from this.

I do not have any ‘special responsibility allowances’. The committee I sit upon is not important enough to pay any extra.

I have claimed £118.80 in travel expenses. This is for three reurn rail journeys to Coventry for a training course I was sent upon (it was very worthwhile); I booked in advance and used my own ‘young persons’ railcard’ to reduce the cost. I also claimed for a return bus and train journeys to Keynsham. I have not claimed bicycle allowance for cycling to meetings in Bath, that seems a bit greedy.

In the period assessed I attended 4 out of 4 Full Council meetings and 2 of 3 Regulatory & Access Committee meetings. I did not attend the first of these as I had a percieved conflict of interest with the main agenda item. I have also substituted once onto the Corporate Audit Committee, which was very exciting and held in a genuine church crypt. [In the last month I have attended another Full Council, a Regs & Access and a Planning Committee but these are outside of the timeframe]

I hope that satisfied your curiosity. Some councillors do even less work for their money http://www.libdemvoice.org/david-murphy-2-2705.html