SALARIES for county councillors in Wales are set to increase this year by more than £1,000.

That will take the basic salary paid to all members of the country’s 22 unitary authorities to £19,771 with additional amounts paid to those who serve as council leaders, on cabinets or who chair some committees.

Councillors are currently paid a basic salary of £18,666 and the £1,105 increase, described as an uplift, has been proposed by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales.

Under the proposals the leaders of Wales’ largest councils, Cardiff, Swansea and Rhondda Cynon Taf, will be paid a salary of £74,141 which includes the basic amount paid to all councillors.

In Gwent the leader of Newport City Council, former Monmouthshire councillor Dimitri Batrouni and his counterpart in Caerphilly, Sean Morgan, will get total salaries worth £66,722 while the the leaders of Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen and Monmouthshire, Stephen Thomas, Anthony Hunt and Mary Ann Brocklesby respectively, will each receive £63,020.

Cabinet members in Newport and Caerphilly will be paid a total salary of £40,036 while those serving on the cabinets of the three smaller councils will get £37,812.

The panel is due to deliver its final report in February and ran a consultation on its proposals until the end of November.

Members of Monmouthshire County Council’s democratic services committee were told, at their January 13 meeting, they had missed the chance to discuss the report, when its November meeting was cancelled but the report had been sent to members so they could send comments, if they wished, directly to the panel.

Devauden councillor Rachel Buckler suggested the public could have a role in helping the panel consider salaries.

The Conservative said it is “very important there is an independent panel” which said ensured decisions are “fair and shielded from political interference” and said would help the public have “trust” in the decisions made.

She said: “I do wonder whether we should have more external oversight such as a citizen’s panel or academics to enhance that independence of thought.”

According to the IRPW the basic salary, paid to all elected members, is 'remuneration for the responsibility of community representation and participation in the scrutiny, regulatory and related functions of local governance'. It is based on a full time equivalent of three days a week.

The proposed rise in councillors’ pay comes months after a review recommended a wage increase of £10,000 for Monmouthshire County Council's chief executive Paul Matthews after it was revealed that Monmouthshire County Council pays a chief executive salary of £128,008 a year which is among the lower quartile of salaries paid by Welsh councils and neighbouring English authorities.

Human resources consultant Anne Phillimore conducted the review and considered options, including paying the chief executive in line with the largest councils in Wales, which would have produced an annual salary of £177,000 to £183,000. She recommended moving the salary into the lower part of the median quartile, of around £138,000 to £148,000.