SURREY county councillors and Waverley borough councillors have been ‘named and shamed’ nationally for awarding themselves some of the largest increases in allowances and expenses.

In the latest town hall rich list report published last week, by campaign group the TaxPayers Alliance, Surrey was slated for being the highest spending county council in England and for awarding the biggest payouts in the South East.

It also paid the highest special responsibility allowance in the South East.

The report found Waverley awarded the highest percentage increase in the rate of basic allowances between 2012/13 and 2014/15 with an 83 per cent rise from £2,454 to £4,501.

Waverley came top of the councils awarding the largest percentage increase in total allowances and expenses from 2012/13 to 2014/15 with a 77 per cent hike from £205,886 to £364,385, with Surrey in third place with a 31 per cent increase from £1,417,291 to £1,860,177.

A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “Our members serve one of the biggest counties in the country, with over 1.1 million residents, and due to Surrey’s close proximity to London we have to make such allowances available to them.”

Waverley Borough Council responded: “The Tax Payers Alliance figures present a misleading picture of councillors’ allowances.

“Although there has been a relativity high percentage increase in members’ allowances, this was from a very low base and was a staged increase to bring allowances from the lowest in the South East towards the regional average.

“The increase was conducted in line with the recommendation of the 2011 Independent Remuneration Panel that found Waverley’s councillor allowance of £2,406 was 100 per cent below the average of £4,426.

“Councillor allowances in Waverley still remain among the lowest in the South East.”

Stewart Edge, chairman of Waverley Lib Dems, said the Taxpayer Alliance data was disturbing but not surprising.

He said: “When the Surrey Conservative majority awarded themselves the increases – larger than recommended by the independent panel appointed to advise the council on allowances – the panel resigned because of the ‘flagrant disregard’ of their recommendations.

“Surrey Lib Dem leader Hazel Watson referred the matter to the Secretary of State but no action was taken.

“At the time the Conservative leader, Peter Martin, said the new allowances ‘were in line with neighbouring authorities’. With the Taxpayer Alliance data showing Surrey’s total allowances and expenses were the highest for an English county council and highest in the South East, Mr Martin had some explaining to do.

“When increases of more than 80 per cent were agreed by the Waverley Conservative administration – in part they said to attract more candidates to stand for election - such large increases should not have been made without reducing at the same time the number of councillors.

“These increases and those in Surrey are particularly objectionable when local government salaries have been almost frozen and, in Surrey, council tax was increased by two per cent a year.”

There were divisions within the Tory ranks at county hall, when Surrey’s full council voted to award higher allowances, which saw council leader David Hodge’s pay increases from £27,000 to £55,418 and his deputy Peter Martin’s pay rises from £19,500 to £42,751.

There were 46 votes for, 24 against and four abstentions. Surrey County Council chairman David Munro abstained from the vote and pledged to donate his 20 per cent increase to charity.

“There were some things I approved of in the recommendations and some I didn’t,” Mr Munro said.

“One of the elements I think is OK is the uplift of the basic councillors’ allowance by approximately five per cent. This is fair as it hasn’t been increased for some time and is a reasonable recompense for what members do in their local capacity. I won’t be commenting further on other elements of the package.”

The Residents’ Association and Independent Group on Surrey County Council voted against the increases, which it calculated would add more than £200,000 to the £1.3million bill for councillors’ pay.

The group also condemned the fact the extra £200,000 agreed equated almost exactly to the sum that was being deducted from the local funding allocations that councillors can award to local projects and charities.

At the time, Haslemere’s independent councillor Nikki Barton said: “I am very disappointed large increases have been awarded when public sector wages are not going up in the same way, and I am concerned we were only presented with the final figures during the meeting so there was no time for proper consideration.

“I voted against it and the dramatic increase for the leader and deputy leader.

“It sends out a terrible signal for councillors to give themselves huge pay rises when so many people are cutting back.”

Releasing last week’s findings, Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be shocked to discover the rate at which councillors’ allowances have risen over the last three years, despite local authorities pleading poverty and in many cases raising council tax or cutting services.

“It goes to show that not every council has prioritised finding savings or cutting taxes over awarding local politicians above inflation allowances.

“With the nation’s finances yet to be fixed, councillors across the country will continue to have to make difficult decisions.

“In order for them to have the moral authority to carry out that very important job, councillors must show restraint when it comes to their own taxpayer-funded allowances and ease the burden on hard-pressed families.”