COUNTY councillors will decide whether to award themselves a pay rise this week.

An increase of nearly £2,000 a year is on the table and would take effect after next year’s Worcestershire County Council elections.

The council’s independent remuneration panel has recommended the basic allowance paid to councillors be increased from £10,799 to £12,633.

Councillors will vote on whether to accept the recommendations at a full council meeting on Thursday (September 12).

The raise would come into effect following the upcoming election in May 2025. It would then be updated each year on April 1 to keep up with inflation.

READ MORE: Worcestershire County Council to fire and rehire 150 staff

READ MORE: Row at Malvern Council meeting over allowance increase

The panel also advises on how much the council should pay out in Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs), which go to councillors in senior positions including the leader, cabinet members and political group leaders.

It says the total amount paid out in SRAs should be frozen until May 2029 and that no more than 27 councillors should receive the payments.

The panel suggests the council’s new administration should propose how it wants to split the amount allocated to making these payments following the election.

If councillors accept the recommendations as they are, the additional annual cost to the council will be £96,900.

It would take the annual cost of members’ allowances to £1,175,000, in addition to travel and subsistence allowances.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the council’s ruling Conservatives will be asked to reconsider plans to fire and rehire up to 150 council employees.

As things stand, some of the authority’s longest-serving staff will be released from 37-hour contracts next week and re-hired on 35-hour deals - effectively a 5.4 percent cut.

The council has been pushing on with the controversial plan in a bid to save £500,000 but has been criticised by union bosses and opposition councillors.

District councillors in Malvern Hills clashed earlier this year as they eventually decided to increase their basic allowance by half the recommended amount.

Leader Tom Wells’ suggestion that members didn’t take the full increase on offer was voted through - but backbenchers felt they were worth more than than the £218 cash boost they ended up with.