While her constituents struggle with the economic fallout of Coronavirus, one Labour Councillor in Nuneaton is laughing her way to the bank after receiving  £4,678 for attending just one meeting. Annualised, she’s pro rata on a premier league footballer’s wage of over £7 million a year…

Tricia Elliott was given the sizable wad in her role as Chair of the Licensing Committee at the council. A freedom of information request by an angry local resident, however, revealed that Elliott chaired only one of the two meetings in the 2019-2020 year – the second of which ended up being chaired by Tory Councillor Kyle Evans. Evans didn’t receive a penny…

“In the municipal year 2018 – 2019 Councillor Patricia Elliott was not chair of the Licensing Committee. In the municipal year 2019 – 2020 only two Licensing Committees were held of which Councillor Patricia Elliott chaired one meeting and the Vice Chair Councillor Kyle Evans chaired the other.”

To further rub the news in for local taxpayers hit by Coronavirus, because of the pandemic her chairmanship has been extended. Making her entitled to continue receiving the allowance even though there are no meetings… literally money for nothing.

UPDATE: Councillor Patricia Elliott gets in touch to complain about the above report:

It is correct that I am Chair of the Licensing Committee at the Borough Council. However, in May 2020 I formally asked that the Chair’s allowance for this Committee not be paid to me for the period of 2020-21. I originally made this request privately as I did not want to put any pressure on other Councillors to do the same, and did not want any publicity for refusing to take an allowance. For the period of 2019-20, I did not receive (as has been claimed) an allowance of £4, 678 for Chairing this Committee, instead, the allowance I received for the year 2019-20 was £2,339. It is correct that there have been fewer meetings for this particular Committee this year, and that has been for a number of reasons. There has not been as much Council business for this Committee to discuss, and therefore this Committee has often had fewer meetings than other Borough Council Committees. I do not wish my statement to be seen in any way as a side swipe at my fellow Committee Chairs, as they deal with very different issues in different meetings.

We went on what the Council officials said in response to a Freedom of Information request. So taking on trust her claims above we are happy to report that she has been paid £2,339, so far, for attending 2 meetings. Which probably reduces her wages pro rata to a Championship Division footballer’s level. Nice work if you can get it…