Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Our Highland Councillors - salary and expenses figures for 2015/2016

Here are the figures from the Highland Council website. You can download a document that gives a full breakdown here. 

In alphabetical order:

Laurie Fraser £17,832.02

Stephen Fuller £16,512.51

Michael Green  £18,790.43 

Liz MacDonald £22,504.91

10 comments:

Pleb Iain said...

In the interests of transparency and accountability it would be very interesting also to see the equivalent figures (salary, allowances, expenses, performance pay, pension contributions and all) for the Highland Council's senior officials - say, the Chief Exec, his Deputy, and all the Directors.

Graisg said...

OK anon you think they are all a waste of space. Fair enough.

Anonymous said...

There always seems to be a great deal of interest in people's expenses claims. Being re-imbursed for money spent in the course of their duties seems perfectly fine to me. I would expect that the hardest working of our elected representatives tend to have higher expense claims than those who rarely leave their house. I am sure that these claims were properly audited and checked.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1.01pm - Is that you Liz? come on own up. lol

Anonymous said...

Stephen Fuller obviously needs to get out more

Anonymous said...

Pleb take a look at the Highland Council annual accounts... Anyone can look. Look at committee meetings, Resources Committee board papers. You will find a lot of info with regard to the higher paid employees. Or do a Freedom of Info enquiriy if you are really that interested.

Anonymous said...

I agree that councillors should be able to claim all expenses incurred through carrying out their duties but £22k for Liz.... What has she actually done?!

Graisg said...

I'm sure they will all be interested in telling you what they have done come the elections in May anon - just have a browse through their leaflets when they drop through your letterbox.

Graisg said...

@thickskinned - It's nothing new and has been mentioned many times before on the Gurn. Yes, Liz has to leave planning meetings when big developments are discussed as she is a potential developer herself. You think she shouldn't get her salary or expenses for that. OK fair enough, some voters will probably give this consideration next May but no doubt other matters will enter the final decisions people make in the ballot box too.

At the last election Liz got 28.6% first preference votes, the nearest to her was Laurie with 15.73%. It will be interesting to see how it pans out next time.

The turnout in Nairn last time was 43.91% so over 56% didn't give a toss about any issues concerning local government? Same this time round?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Council_election,_2012#Nairn

Thick skinned said...

I'm not a member but like the work of the SNP in Scotland (and Westminster). They're one of the few cohesive political parties in the UK. But for me politics starts at ground level, locally. Liz is compromised in her work by her own position re being a potential developer. Yes it's been mentioned before, and yes, voters will no doubt put their mark against the candidate who they (hopefully) think will do the best job.But other than the Gurn and the Highland Council website I see no mention of Liz's development issues.

No doubt a glossy leaflet will drop through the door near election time outlining the success of the SNP and many folk will vote accordingly

I can only thank the Gurn for being seemingly the sole platform in which such matters are discussed; it's a shame you don't have the resources to push your own material through doors to make folk think. Main stream media has an awful lot to answer for this year, please keep going