Herefordshire Council’s Leader and Chair elected and committee chairs appointed.
Full Council met today (Friday May 20) to decide on how Herefordshire Council will be governed in the 2022/23 municipal year.
Councillor Hitchiner remains as Leader of Herefordshire Council, while Councillor Bowen and Councillor Guthrie are Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson respectively.
Full Council appointed Herefordshire Council’s committee chairs, confirmed as:
- Children and young people scrutiny committee
Chairperson: Cllr Phillip Howells / Vice-chairperson: Cllr Jennie Hewitt
- Connected communities and scrutiny committee
(formerly general scrutiny committee)
Chairperson: Cllr Jonathan Lester / Vice-chairperson: Cllr Tracy Bowes
- Environment and sustainability scrutiny committee
Chairperson: Cllr Louis Stark / Vice-chairperson: Cllr Trish Marsh
- Health, care and wellbeing scrutiny committee
(formerly adults and wellbeing scrutiny committee)
Chairperson: Cllr Elissa Swinglehurst / Vice-chairperson: Cllr Peter Jinman
- Scrutiny management board
Chairperson: Cllr Christy Bolderson / Vice-chairperson: Cllr Yolande Watson
- Audit and Governance
Chairperson: Cllr Nigel Shaw / Vice-chairperson: Cllr Jenny Bartlett
- Employment Panel
Chairperson: Cllr David Hitchiner / Vice-chairperson: Cllr Ellie Chowns
- Planning and Regulatory
Chairperson: Cllr Terry James / Vice-chairperson: Cllr Paul Rone
- Licensing sub-committee
Chairperson: Cllr Paul Andrews
Full Council also approved the Report of the Herefordshire Independent Remuneration Panel which makes recommendations on councillor’s allowances. The report analysed allowances paid by similar local councils across the country for comparison and found that Herefordshire Council pays the 9th (out of 10) lowest basic allowance within the cohort of comparator local authorities.
The recommendations made by independent panel are based on the principles of the Dame Jane Roberts Councillor's Commission, which encourages people from a wide range of backgrounds to serve as local councillors, to compensate councillors for their work and have regard to the full range of commitment and complexity of their roles, while providing transparency and observing benchmarks. The revised scheme will come into effect after the next elections in 2023.