West Lothian councillors will receive pay rises of between £750 and just over £1000 in April.
The new pay agreement will see Leader of the Council, Councillor Lawrence Fitzpatrick’s pay rise by £1500, from £35,713 to 37,213.
The salary of the provost, Tom Kerr, will rise by £1125 from £26,785 to £27,910.
The council’s Executive agreed the pay package on Tuesday.
The agreement means that annual salary for councillors rises from £17,854 to £18,604 and for the 12 senior councillors, from £26,039 to £27,133.
Committee conveners see their salaries increase from £22,320 to £23,257 - a rise of £937, and vice conveners from £21,204 to £22,095 - a rise of £891.
A report to the Executive said: “Elected members remuneration is set by the Scottish Government. The Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 (Remuneration) Amendment Regulations 2021 (the 2021 Regulations), were laid before the Scottish Parliament on January 18 2021 and are due to come into force on April 1 2021. They substitute increased annual amounts of local authority remuneration to members. The changes will come into effect from April 1 2021.”
Conservative group leader Councillor Damian Doran-Timson asked what would happen to rises where councillors refused to accept them.
Julie Whitelaw, head of corporate service, said the pay rises were set by regulation and any monies refused would not accrue to council funds, though for senior councillors there is a pot of funding where any pay rise could be allotted.
Councillor Fitzpatrick asked if there were still rules in place from a time when local government was “only open to rich people to hold local office.”
Governance Manager, James Millar, explained that the current rules date from the introduction of multi-member wards, but any member could opt not to take remuneration, for instance on being elected as an MP or MSP.
