COUNTY councillors have voted to raise their own allowance by nearly £2,000.

At the same meeting, they also decided to press on with plans to cut the pay of about 150 members of staff.

Worcestershire County Council’s independent remuneration panel had recommended the basic allowance paid to councillors be increased from £10,799 to £12,633.

At a full council meeting held at Bromsgrove’s Parkside Hall on Thursday (September 12), members accepted the panel’s recommendations.

The 17 per cent increase will come into effect following the local elections in May 2025 and will then be updated each year on April 1 to keep up with inflation.

But some long-serving members of staff are facing a 5.4 per cent cut, as they will be fired from their 37-hour contracts in October and re-hired on 35-hour contracts.

Labour, Green and Lib Dem councillors plus one independent voted against the council’s fire and rehire plans on Thursday, but were outvoted.

Tory, Lib Dem, Green, Reform UK and independent councillors voted in favour of a rise in the basic members’ allowance. Labour councillors abstained from the vote.

The total amount paid in Special Responsibilities Allowances, which go to councillors in senior positions within the authority, will be frozen for the whole of the next administration, until May 2029.

A broadband allowance, which is currently claimed by a number of county councillors, is being scrapped and will be subsumed into the increased basic allowance.

At the recommendation of the panel, the council is also introducing a parental leave arrangement.

In its report, the panel said: “The level of allowances should reflect the need for community leadership and the delivery of the council's ambitions for itself and its citizens by the attraction and retention of the very best to be councillors and from diverse backgrounds reflective of the Worcestershire population.

“We recognise the challenge of attracting a wider selection of prospective councillors who are as representative as possible of the community the council serves and we have explored what might appropriately be done to help address this.”

* A previous version of this story said councillors unanimously voted in favour of increasing the members' allowance.