By Brian Allison, local government reporter

THE INTRODUCTION of a new salary scheme for councillors has pushed up the cost to the public purse of Dundee City Council’s elected members by well over £50,000 to more than half a million pounds.

However, the new scheme —combined with the fact that there was an election within the period covered by the figures issued yesterday, which meant around a third of the council’s membership changed—makes it impossible to draw direct comparison with previous years.

The figures relate to the financial year from the beginning of April 2007 to the end of March this year.

For the first month, leading to local authority elections, councillors operated under a scheme of allowances and expenses.

After the elections a new scheme of salaries and expenses came in across the country which saw councillors being paid a wage much higher than the allowances they used to receive.

In Dundee, under the old system, each of the 29 councillors got a basic allowance of less than £7000, topped up in most cases by additional special responsibility allowances (SRAs) for posts they held on the council.

Now, in a full year, each councillor will be entitled to a basic salary of more than £15,000 and many will also get an SRA on top of that.

In presenting the latest figures the council had to distinguish between amounts claimed by councillors in the month or so prior to the elections and remuneration for elected members since last May.

Most councillors on the last council were also elected to the new one and qualify for the previous allowances scheme and the new salaries. However, 11 members of the old council did not come back.

They only received the proportion of the allowances—plus expenses —for the period between the start of the financial year and the elections.

New members elected in May went straight on to the salary scheme and did not qualify for the previous allowances from the start of the financial year.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that the SNP’s Nigel Don was elected to both the city council and the Scottish Parliament under the list system. He stayed on the council for several months before stepping down to concentrate on being an MSP, but did not take his council salary. He qualified under the old scheme of allowances in force before the last council ceased.

The cost of councillors in the year covered by the figures is just over £518,000 —almost £55,000 more than the previous year.

Top of the list was administration leader Kevin Keenan with a combined total of nearly £29,000, followed by Conservative group leader and development quality convener Rod Wallace on £23,335 and housing convener George Regan with £23,282.

Also over £20,000 were: Lord Provost John Letford (22,849); social work and health convener Helen Wright (£22,122); Liberal Democrat group leader and planning and transportation convener Fraser Macpherson, and economic development convener Joe Morrow (both £20,533).