Perth and Kinross Council meetings will next year be held on Mondays and Wednesdays to “broaden the range” of people who become councillors.
Both the council’s Provost and council leader said it had been a desire of the council for five years but never fulfilled.
PKC’s SNP leader Grant Laing said moving on from the previous “scattergun approach” would allow future council candidates to stand “with certainty” they can be available to work three days a week.
While councillors are remunerated for their work, the basic annual pay for councillors from 1 April 2022 is £19,571. This rises to £39, 148 for PKC’s leader and £29,361 for the Perth and Kinross Provost.
Aim to be ‘work-friendly’
At a meeting of Perth and Kinross Council on Wednesday, November 9 councillors were asked to approve the 2023 committee timetable.
At Wednesday’s meeting Local Review Body convener Bob Brawn questioned why the local review body meetings had switched from a Tuesday to a Monday.
Provost Xander McDade – who in May became Perth and Kinross’ and possibly Scotland’s youngest ever provost aged just 28 – said: “The council resolved five years ago to hold committees on Mondays and Wednesdays to allow members who are working to commit certain days and then be off for certain days.”
The Independent Highland Perthshire councillor added: “If you are on, for example, licensing committee – which used to meet on a Thursday – and you worked three days a week you would have to use over half your annual leave entitlement to attend those committees if you were not able to rearrange it.
“So we have sought to try and make it as work-friendly as possible and to allow everyone to participate in every committee so it’s not just certain members who are able to take part.”
Five years in the making
Council leader Grant Laing said it was “accepted unanimously” in 2017 to hold meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays when possible “to broaden the range of people who could come to council”.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “No move was made to fulfil that desire of council as expressed. I don’t blame officers for that.”
The SNP Strathtay ward councillor added: “This year we need to start setting out to see if this is possible to work this timetable and for the intake who come in in 2027 to know they will have three days a week they can continue to work.
“We could not have somebody come in and this be their sole job with a scattergun approach that committees were before – four days one week, two days the next and not a day the next week.”
Can meetings be sped up?
Conservative Almond and Earn councillor David Illingworth said he “completely agreed” but called for a working group to look at speeding up meetings.
He also called for briefer, clearer papers which he said would be “easier to read, easier to produce and easier to understand”.
Provost McDade confirmed revising the layout of papers was currently being worked on by officers.
Liberal Democrat Kinross-shire councillor Willie Robertson suggested the council adopt the rules used by a well-known BBC Radio 4 quiz show.
Cllr Robertson said: “There’s a really good old radio programme called Just a Minute. The rules of Just a Minute are: no hesitation, no repetition and no deviation.
“I think all conveners in this council should take this on board and it should be a rule of this council that we adhere to it.”
The new timetable was approved.
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