Elections, allowances and roles

Electoral context
I was elected on Thursday 2nd May 2024 as the first Green councillor for St George West ward on Bristol City Council.


St George West is a one-councillor ward, so is about half of the size of surrounding two-councillor wards (such as Easton, Lawrence Hill, Eastville and St George Central).


There are 16 councillors in the Bristol East parliamentary constituency:
Green: 9
Labour: 3
Lib Dem: 2
Conservative: 2

The General Election on Thursday 4th July 2024 produced this result in Bristol East:

My allowances and roles
It’s important that the public have access to their councillor’s allowances and roles, so they can understand the different areas of work they are focused on and can see how taxpayers’ money is being spent.

The basic allowance of £17,098 is paid to all 70 councillors of Bristol City Council. You can read more about how this figure is calculated here: Councillors’ allowances and payments

I also receive a special responsibility allowance (SRA) of £8,550 for my role as chair of Development Control Committee A. You can read more about SRAs here: Part 6 – Member Allowances Scheme – February 2025.pdf

This means my before-tax allowance income is £25,648. The mean (average) salary in the UK is around £37,000 and the median salary is around £31,461. Since 2016, councillors are no longer permitted to pay into the local government pension scheme and we are not employees of the council. We are, technically speaking, volunteers who are granted these allowances.

I am also the chair of a policy task and finish group (in my case, the kerbside and parking strategy) and I will receive a one-off payment of £2,000 upon submission of the Group’s report of recommendations to the parent committee (transport and connectivity policy committee). This is expected to be in early 2026.

I am also a member of:

  • Transport and Connectivity Policy Committee – (Bristol City Council)
  • Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education – (an outside body)
  • PATROL – Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London (previously known as Joint Committee for Civil Enforcement of Parking and Bus Lanes) – (an outside body)

I was previously a member of:

  • Downs Committee
  • Bristol Airport Consultative Committee
  • Committee Model Review Group

I resigned from all three for capacity reasons. (For Downs Committee, it was two reasons, see here and here.)