Earlier this year, Reading councillors voted to increase allowances for lead members despite opposition from Conservative and Green councillors.

Labour Party councillor Ashley Pearce, Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) lead member for Education, believes this increase reflects the workload of councillors and is “healthy for democracy” and has broadly put the council in line with neighbouring authorities.

The lead councillor took the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) through a day in the life as a lead member at the council, where he can attend as many as five meetings in one day.

An economics teacher, Cllr Pearce juggles all things education on a weekly basis, meeting with heads of trusts, parents, headteachers and council officers alongside his teaching role.

“The best thing about the job is the amount of different people from different walks of life that you meet,” said Cllr Pearce.

The increase in allowances, recommended by an independent remuneration panel and approved in June, sees lead councillors such as Cllr Pearce’s more than double, rising from £3,816 to £9,500.

Councillor Jeanette Skeats, leader of the Reading Conservatives group, rejected the increase at the June meeting, saying she supported a rise but “the level of increase recommended by the panel is too high”.  

Green Party councillor Rob White also rejected the rise and said an increase in the base allowance for councillors would be “a better approach”.

Speaking to Cllr Pearce two months after the increase was approved, he said the decision reflects the workload of lead councillors.

He said: “We are not hiding away in offices. We are not getting an inordinate amount of money.

“For the wider public it is a very much misconstrued job. We are not MPs. I think people mix it up quite a lot and put us in the same bracket.”

There is “a huge increase” in workload when you become a lead councillor, according to Cllr Pearce.

He said: “Emails more than quadruple when you become a lead councillor. We get so much more contact with people. It is really good, but it is very time consuming.

“Most of my emails are to do with education rather than individual casework. It is a huge workload.”

RBC’s lead members vary in age range, with councillor Ellie Emberson, lead member for Coporate and Consumer Services, one of the youngest in the country while councillor Tony Page, deputy leader and lead member for Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport,  is one of the longest-serving councillors in the UK.

Cllr Pearce hopes the increase will encourage younger people to get into local politics but also keep lead councillors in their roles for longer.

“If we want people who are younger the pay has to go up,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for that pay rise I would have gone for a position of head of year. Hopefully it will encourage younger people to get into it.”

Cllr Pearce is not calling for any further increases in allowances but said “we cannot expect people to do it for below minimum wage”.

He said: “I don’t think that is sustainable.

“I don’t think any councillors want to be paid over the odds for it. We are all there to give something back.”