Councillors have voted not to give themselves a pay rise, despite inflation running at 8.7%.

At a meeting of Tonbridge and Malling council on Tuesday (July 11), members voted to keep the basic allowance payable to all councillors unchanged at £5,175 per annum.

The leader’s and deputy leader’s allowances will also remain unchanged at £20,706 per annum and £15,528 respectively.

Payments to cabinet members also stay the same at £8,802 per annum.

The chairman of commmittees also receive extra payments: Area Planning Committees (there are three of them) - £1,725 per annum; Audit Committee - £2,589 per annum; General Purposes Committee - £1,725 per annum; Joint Standards Committee - £2,589 per annum; Licensing and Appeals Committee - £2,589 per annum; Overview and Scrutiny Committee - £2,589 per annum; Scrutiny Select Committees (three of them) - £2,589 per annum.

Opposition group leaders are get a flat sum of £4,401 per annum, no mattter how large or small their group. This is a change from the previous system, where there was a pro-rata payment per member.

Additionally, in certain circumstances, councillors can claim mileage allowance, and carers’ allowance, but they will now longer be able to claim subsistance allowance which is being terminated.

Council leader Cllr Matt Boughton (Con) said: “All councils are facing financial challenges, but so are residents.

“We wanted to lead by example and have set this freeze on pay so that we can concentrate the council’s financial resources on delivering services to the public, which is what we are here for.”