About Us
The Councillors
Meet your Independent Ratepayer councillors for Heald Green
Since 1929, all Heald Green councillors have been independent Ratepayers’ councillors.
Independent Ratepayer councillors must live in Heald Green and therefore are in an ideal position “to watch over the interests of the area”. Each councillor is elected for a maximum 4 year term before they must stand for re-election.
The Councillors guiding principles
The Independent Ratepayer councillors differ from the main political parties in that whilst they may have topical priorities, they do not have a manifesto or policies. The councillors do however have some guiding principles which informs their work at Stockport Council:
- To support the smooth-running of SMBC, which generally involves:
- Supporting the largest group to form an administration after each election
- Supporting the administration’s budget proposals each year
There are occasions on which the Ratepayers’ councillors will not follow these principles when they feel that to do so would not be in the best interests of the Heald Green ward residents, or would not support the smooth-running of the council.
Frequently asked questions
What allowances do the councillors get?
The allowances councillors receive are published on the Stockport council website here.
£11,059.78 is the basic allowance.
If you pro rata the time we spend dealing with case work, preparing for meetings (often the documents are hundreds of pages long), attending formal council meetings, attending other meetings, attending training sessions, responding to queries on social media and writing up articles to share with residents this would work out at less than minimum wage if it were a paid role.
This allowance is taxable and there is no pension attached to the role at present. We sometimes think the salary we receive is confused with that of MPs, which is a lot more.
Last year Stockport’s councillors voted against significant pay rises, you can read about this in this Manchester Evening News article.