Members of the Council

The Council is made up of 42 Members representing 18 wards. There are 40 Conservatives and 2 Labour members.

Visit the Councillor pages for more information.

Members Allowances

Since 1974 Councillors have been entitled to receive or to claim a range of allowances for undertaking their Council duties.

Since 2000, the Council has been required to appoint an Independent Remuneration Panel to advise the Council on an appropriate level for all of the allowances that are paid to Councillors. The full Council sets the levels of allowances, taking into consideration the recommendations of the Panel. You can find a copy of the most recent report by following the link on the right of this page.

Every Councillor receives an annual payment for the time they spend on their elected duties and all allowances are subject to National Insurance and income tax deductions where appropriate.

Allowances paid to Councillors are made up of the following:

A Basic Allowance. The same rate of Basic Allowance must be paid to all Councillors.
A Special Responsibility Allowance. Where a Councillor has a role with significant additional responsibility to the standard role of a Councillor they can be paid a Special Responsibility Allowance. The rate of the Allowance is dependent on the level of responsibility for which it is paid.
Travel and Subsistence allowances can be claimed where a Councillor incurs expenditure in order to perform an approved Council duty outside of the borough. They can also claim subsistence when they are acting as the authorised representative of the Council at a meeting, conference or seminar outside of the borough. Actual costs of standard rail fares, taxi & bus fares and other direct costs can also be claimed. Claims have to be supported by receipts. The rates of these allowances are the same as those paid to officers of the authority but are capped at the mid engine size rate for mileage claims.
Councillors can claim a Dependants’ Carers’ Allowance where expenditure is necessarily and exclusively incurred in arranging care of children or dependants when undertaking approved duties.

The latest Allowances Scheme is included in Part 6 of the Constitution.

The Council publishes the total amounts paid to each Member of the Council in respect of Basic Allowance, Special Responsibility Allowance and Travelling and Subsistence. You can find an overview of these expenses for the last financial years, on the right of this page.

Copies of Councillors’ claims are also available for inspection by the public, during normal office hours, at the Council Offices at Easthampstead House, Town Square, Bracknell RG12 1AQ. For further information on Members’ Allowances, please contact Kirsty Hunt (01344) 353108.