Scarborough Mayor's Allowance Increase Not as Large as Claimed

The newly formed Scarborough Town Council burst into the national headlines last weekend when an increase in the Mayor's annual allowance became a hot topic on the Sunday TV politics shows.

Reform leader Nigel Farage was quizzed about the increase in the Town Mayor's allowance amid claims that the Mayor was to see a 600% increase in his annual allowance, but those figures don't seem to be correct.

Scarborough Town Council held their first full meeting on the evening of Wednesday 16th July. Among the items on the agenda was an item seeking approval of the Town Council's budget for it's first year of operation.

As part of the discussion councillor Rich Maw asked a question about the setting of the Mayor's annual allowance at £3,500.

Town Councillors are not paid for their work on the council but it is normal for the Mayor and often the Deputy Mayor to be allocated an allowance to help cover the costs of attending civic engagements. Mayors do not always claim the full allowance in any one year and the amount they claim usually depends on how many civic engagements they undertook. Some of the allowance might be used to pay donations to charities at events the Mayor attends.

Scarborough Town Council was formed in April this year to fill a gap left over from when the former Borough Council was abolished two years ago. At that point parts of Scarborough and Harrogate town centres became the only parts of North Yorkshire not to have a town or parish council, the role had previously been filled by the borough councils.

In the intervening two years the ceremonial role of Mayor of Scarborough had been fulfilled by a Charter Mayor appointed by a group of Charter Trustees. The Charter trustees were established  to maintain the civic, historic, and ceremonial traditions of the former borough councils following local government restructuring, they were appointed from locally elected councillors and had powers to set a council tax precept to fund their operation.

In the Town Council meeting on July 16th, in this exchange with the Mayor, Councillor Thomas Murray, Councillor Rich Maw stated that the previous Charter Mayor had received an annual allowance of £500 and the deputy Mayor £100

The allowance figures quoted by Councillor Maw, of £500 for the Mayor and £100 for the Deputy, were the initial allowances set when the Charter Trustees were formed in 2023 and the the figures appear in the budget for the year 2023/24 https://edemocracy.northyorks.gov.uk/documents/s25559/Appx%20A%20Scarborough%20CT%20budget%2024-25.pdf

However the following year's budget for the Charter Trustees records that the Mayor's allowance increased to £1000 and the Deputy Mayor's to £200. These changes were approved at a meeting of the Charter Trustees on December 15th 2023, a meeting attended by Councillor Maw who was one of the trustees and who voted to approve the budget document, which stated:

"Other budgets had been reviewed and summarised to simplify administration going forward, including a £500 increase in the Charter Mayor’s allowance.."

The final meeting of the Charter Trustees in March 2025 was presented with a finance report which showed the full £1200 of Mayoral allowances had been paid out. https://edemocracy.northyorks.gov.uk/documents/s50476/Scarborough%20Charter%20Trustees%20Finance%20Report%20To%20March%202025.pdf

This means that a direct comparison of the Charter Mayor's £1000 allowance and the new Town Mayor's £3500 allowance would show an increase of 250% rather than 600%.

It's also not clear that the budgets for the roles can be directly compared. The Charter Trustee accounts included a separate item for Taxi fairs incurred by councillors, some or all of which may be attributable to attending civic events.

The Charter Mayor had attended 73 civic events between May 2024 and March 2025 and was expecting to attend a further ten events in the final months of the role. It's not yet known how many events the new Town Mayor will attend each year.

Speaking at the meeting on July 16th Councillor William Stuart said the £3500 allowance is an upper limit and the Mayor may claim less.

The Charter Trustees, including Councillor Maw, clearly expected the new Town Council to require a significant budget for civic duties. At a meeting in November 2024 the Trustees set out a preliminary budget for the new Town Council which includes a budget line of £15,000 for civic duties and events. https://edemocracy.northyorks.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=2121&MId=19292&Ver=4

The actual cost of running the Mayor won't truly be known until next year when it becomes evident how much of the £3500 allowance the new Town Mayor has claimed and even then it may not be easy to make direct comparisons with the previous arrangement.

Other town councils on the Yorkshire Coast also have annual allowances for their Mayors. Whitby Town Council's budget for this year has a Mayoral Allowance of £1,600,  Filey Town Council's is set at £2,034, the last available figures for Bridlington Town Council show that in 2022/23 it paid a total of £435 to the Mayor and Deputy, combined, for expenses.

Mayors’ allowances are covered by the Local Government Act 1972, sections 15(5) and 35(5), which states that they are to provide recompense for appropriate clothing (which would not otherwise have been necessary), transport, contribution towards telephone, small tokens such as flowers, donations to charities, tickets to functions etc. There is no requirement for strict accounting for the spend, but a general report on activity suffices. The allowance is not exempt from income tax. 

The overall budget for Scarborough Town Council’s first year up to March 2026, including staff salaries, has been set at £385,750.