Row over council opposition leader allowance cut

Derbyshire's Reform UK leaders have voted to cut the allowance paid to the Conservative opposition by thousands of pounds despite fierce criticism.

The council voted to cut the allowance for the leader of the main opposition group, Alex Dale, from 45% to 30% of the council leader's pay.

The move will reduce the annual amount given to Dale by about £6,000. He has called for a "proper review" of the decision.

The Conservatives called the move "spiteful, mean and uncalled for", but the Reform group said the change brought them into line with other councils.

The Conservatives also urged that the decision be referred to the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP), which advises councillors' allowance

Councils are legally required to seek advice from the panel for recommendations on its Members' Allowances Scheme and amounts to be paid under it.

The IRP's annual report for Derbyshire did not recommend a cut to the opposition leader's allowance, adding to allegations from opposition councillors that it was a political decision.

Dale said the role of the independent panel was to ensure "transparency" and to "[prevent] the sort of gutter politics we see with this approach".

"To do this is really spiteful," he told a meeting of full council.

"The right process of this [would be to] subject my specific role to the independent renumeration panel. Let's have a proper review of it. If they think I should be paid less, then I will happily vote for it."

The change will see the opposition leader granted an annual amount of £12,560 for the upcoming financial year. Previously, the figure would be closer to £19,000.

The leader will be allocated £41,868 and the deputy leader £31,398.

Cabinet members will be allocated £20,928.

Reform leader of the council, Alan Graves, said the change would bring Derbyshire more into line with other councils, which he said had an allowance for opposition leaders of roughly 25% and 30% of the leader's allowance, rather than the higher amount in Derbyshire.

"We want to stop extra spending on councillors," he said.

"We've been talking about poor old councillor Alex Dale... it's about the title of the opposition leader.

"You don't need allowances to scrutinise anybody... you can still hold us to account.

"The IRP is an independent organisation that advises this council... we as councillors can have our own opinion.

"We have decided to freeze allowances. That is the most important part of this."

The Liberal Democrats also criticised the decision of the leadership to present the council with the change minutes before the meeting started as an "ambush".

Other allowances for other members of the council will be frozen.

The basic allowance and most special responsibility payments will stay at current levels from April 2026.

Savings from the freeze and the reduction will be transferred into the Member Community Leadership Scheme to support local projects.

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