Expenses claims by Highland councillors triple in a year going from £38,494 to £120,068
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Highland councillors’ expenses have tripled in the last year going from £38,494 to £120,068 as it would appear the cost of living crisis is pushing up claims by some elected members.
The clearest rise was in the amounts that were reimbursed for mileage which more than quadrupled to just over £79,000. The previous year it was just under £17,000 but the year before than it was £3551 – equating to a 40-fold increase since 2021.
Accommodation costs hit £17,421, five times higher than last year’s tally (£3418) and a 183-fold increase on two years ago when just £95 was claimed by councillors.
To draw another parallel with last year the highest claim was made by Convener Bill Lobban who submitted expenses worth £1712 for mileage, £570 for telephone and mobile use and other items bringing his total to £2436.
This year the Badenoch and Strathspey councillor submitted claims for £4692 for mileage, £753.30 for direct travel, £413 for accommodation and £587 for telephone and mobile use. With other items his total expenses hit £6555.
Highest claim
But his claim was not the highest – council leader and Caithness councillor Raymond Bremner hit the top spot with expenses claims totalling £8269, with the big ticket items being mileage (£4075) direct travel (£1174) and accommodation (£2760).
Both Cllr Bremner as leader and Cllr Lobban as convener have busy diaries due to their roles while their respective home bases in Caithness and Strathspey likely account for the high travel and accommodation claims.
The third highest claim came from education chairman John Finlayson, who travels in from Skye. He accrued £4398 in mileage and £628 in accommodation costs and ran up phone bills of £468 for a grand total of £5667.
Councillor has never claimed expenses
The pattern was common among most other senior councillors though former deputy leader of the council and current leader of the opposition, Alasdair Christie, also with a full diary, did not claim a penny.
In fact, since being elected 2009, Cllr Christie has not claimed any expenses at all, in sharp contrast to newly elected councillors who have generally claimed large amounts.
The majority of other councillors with large expenses claims are those who live furthest from Inverness, where most meetings take place.
They include the Greens’ Kate Willis from Lochaber who racked up £3492, Conservative Ruraidh Stewart from Wester Ross (£3539), the SNP’s Leslie-anne Niven from Sutherland (£3086), and Independent Calum Munro from Skye (£4321).
