SALARIES for councillors in Ceredigion will cost council taxpayers more than £540,000 for 2012-13.

Travel, subsistence and other allowances due will be paid on top of the basic figures for work carried out outside the county.

Members were given details of the figures by finance director Gwyn Jones at the full council meeting last week.

The basic salaries, formerly called ‘allowances’ are fixed by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales and cover the period from when the new council began operating in May this year, to March 2013.

Leader of the council, Cllr Ellen ap Gwynn will get a salary of £42,300; deputy leader Cllr Ray Quant, gets £29,820; a salary of £25,660 goes to each of the other Cabinet members – Cllrs Hag Harris, Catherine Hughes, Peter Davies, Gareth Lloyd, Dafydd Edwards and Alun Williams.

Leader of the opposition group, Cllr Ceredig Davies, gets £21,910.

Chairman of the council, Cllr Mark Cole will receive £19,035; the deputy chair, Cllr John Adams-Lewis, gets £14,805.

Chairmen of scrutiny committees will get £21,910 each. They are Cllrs Odwyn Davies, Paul James, G Davies, Gethin James, Alun Lloyd Jones, Paul Hinge and Gill Hopley.

All other council members get a basic salary of £13,175.

The full council approved the payments at the level prescribed by the IRP.

In addition, there will be payments of £198 a day (£99 a half day) to co-opted members of the ethics and standards committee and the learning communities committee.

All councillors will be required to provide an annual report of their activities to be published on the council website, records will be kept of their attendance at meetings and of their activities.