Councillor costs move towards £1m

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Councillors in Dumfries and Galloway received nearly £1m in salaries and expenses in the last financial year.

The figures for 2008/09 rose by about 10% compared with the previous year's costs although that covered a shorter time period due to council elections.

The total paid out to the 47-member authority was £979,842.

The amounts ranged from more than £32,000 to council leader Ivor Hyslop to less than £15,000 to Mike Thomson who won a by-election in May last year.

It translates to an average of about £20,800 per councillor.

Salary and allowance costs in Dumfries and Galloway have increased steadily over the past three years.

In 2007/08 the authority reported a total of £889,981 had been paid to members.

However, council elections in May meant those figures did not refer to a full financial year.

The corresponding figure in 2006/07 - when a different allowance scheme was in operation - was £724,390.

A DGC statement on the subject highlighted changes in the expenses system which had taken place over the past three years.

It said that made it impossible to compare figures directly from one year to the next.