The head of the island’s biggest local authority has said it is ’only right’ that members can claim expenses for attending meetings.

However, some of his counterparts across the island have said they don’t receive and don’t want any payment.

Leader of Douglas Council David Christian claimed £5,425 during the last financial year. Ratepayers paid more than £40,000 for members’ expenses in the capital alone..

Public representatives, who don’t receive a salary, can claim £7.50 an hour for an evening meeting, and £12.50 for a daytime session.

Claims vary across authorities. Many smaller, more rural boards pay nothing.

Legally, the maximum annual claim that local authority members can claim is £3,600 for attendance at evening meetings or £6,000 for attendance at daytime sessions or at both daytime and evening meetings.

Mr Christian said: ’The maximum you can get is £50 a meeting. So if you look at it £50 for a meeting, that is 120 meetings a year.

’There have been several years where I’ve well exceeded that sort of amount. So you can have several months where you’ve run out of meetings you can claim for.’

Mr Christian said that the days of a local authority being run for free ’for the love of the community... are long gone I’m afraid’. He added: ’It is ridiculous to say people should just do it for the love of it.’

Mr Christian said that, while he runs his own business, he would make more money working than he does carrying out local authority duties.

Douglas is different from many other local authorities because its meetings take place in the daytime, while staff are at work. This means that councillors who have to work in the daytime have to take time off from their day job to attend meetings.

The deputy chairman of Ramsey Commissioners, Luke Parker, doesn’t claim any attendance allowances.

He said when he was first elected he was unaware there was payment available.

He added: ’As I’ve grown up with volunteering, so youth work and other committees and organisations, Chamber of Commerce, they’re all voluntary roles and I’ve never asked for any type of payment and that’s how see this. Being a commissioner is the same.

’I’m trying to benefit the town and give what I can back to it but I don’t want anything back from it.’

But Mr Parker said that some commissioners do dedicate more time than others and shouldn’t lose out financially due to not working if they need to attend meetings.

He added that it is a ’personal choice’ for every member.

Ramsey ratepayers paid out over £5,000 in expenses for local authority members.

The chairman of Peel Commissioners, Alan Jones, said that, while he doesn’t claim, the choice is up to members.