Expenses

'Edinburgh Labour' Group Expenses

Unless you've been on the dark-side of the moon for the last few weeks, its hard to believe that you haven't picked up on all the coverage concerning the expenses of certain Elected Members from the Westminster Parliament :-(

Well, the 'expenses' for all of Edinburgh's 58 Local Councillors - for the year ending 31st March 2009 - are published late this afternoon and you can see all the details for the 'Edinburgh Labour' Group of 15 Councillors by going here.

You can see the complete list for all Parties by going here (2008-09 may not be there for an hour or two). If you're not certain which Councillor belongs to which Party (no jokes please!), then you can find out here.

You'll see from the 'Edinburgh Labour' table, that almost all our Group of 15 are on the basic annual salary of £15,838 - the exceptions being Ewan Aitken and myself, who have variously spent parts of 2008/09 as Group Leader which is regarded as a Senior Councillor post and for which the full annual salary is just over £24,000.

Salaries aside, the total of additional expenses claimed by our complete Group of 15 Councillors for the whole of 2008/09 is £9,797.

I'll briefly explain some of the column headings in the 'Edinburgh Labour' table for these additional expenses:

• mileage expenses - this relates to daily travel costs: principally 'mileage allowance' for car travel.
• taxis - for taxis fares related to Council work.
• subsistence expenses - 'accommodation costs' at any conferences attended.
• telephone and ICT expenses - telephone calls made for work purposes: principally 'home-telephone' costs.
• other allowances and expenses - this relates, in the main, to the £444 for an annual bus pass. As you'll see, most 'Edinburgh Labour' Councillors use this as their primary mode of travel. This column also includes any 'conference fees' and overseas travel.

As mentioned above, this totals £9,797 for our complete Group of 15 Councillors for the whole of 2008/09

In the spirit of openness, I'm putting all of this up on the blog so that people can make up their own mind about what each individual 'Edinburgh Labour' Councillor has claimed this year - and, as indicated above, you can also contrast it with what the other 43 Edinburgh Councillors have claimed (2008-09 may not be there for an hour or two).

And, I will positively welcome any questions about any of the detail for our Group of 15 Councillors - either through the comments section of this post and/or via e-mail to andrew.burns@edinburgh.gov.uk

I will respond to all queries.