A council which will cease to exist in five months has agreed to give every member of staff, including part-time workers, a £350 bonus in time for Christmas.

A full meeting of Richmondshire District Council saw councillors approve a proposal to hand all employees the equivalent money to about 1,000 Kilowatts of energy by a strong majority.

The meeting had been told the move would cost £93,000 and be funded from the authority’s Taxpayers’ Reserve.

The decision follows the county council’s executive approving a “section 24” move in May, to scrutinise all moves by district and borough councils to spend more than £100,000 ahead of them being disbanded on March 31.

While many district councillors across the county expressed dismay over the move as it limited their jurisdiction, the county council said the check was vital to provide a carefully co-ordinated shift to a single over-arching authority and ensure adequate funds are available for North Yorkshire Council from the spring of next year.

The staff bonus decision also comes after Richmondshire council bucked the national trend by freezing its council tax demand earlier this year to help residents financially, and instead used more than £300,000 of reserves to continue providing all its services.

The proposal was brought by a Conservative former deputy leader of the authority, Councillor Ian Threlfall, who told the meeting the council had a duty to assist its staff “as a responsible employer”.

He said: “The action that we need to take is short and swift. The reason why is because due to the horrific conflict in Ukraine we all are finding ourselves facing a cost of living crisis, not just in Richmondshire or England, it’s across the world.”

Coun Threlfall said he had noticed various initiatives by companies, such as those offering free transport to work or free meals at work, to alleviate “those running costs that we all have to bear to keep our house and home.

He said the total cost of the move, including extra National Insurance contributions, would be about £93,000.

Coun Threlfall said: “That £93,000 was very important because what I didn’t want to do was trigger s24 [section 24]. It would then go to another level of bureaucracy, more discussion, and we wouldn’t be able to face this crisis head on.”

No one spoke against the proposal and members said they did not wish a decision to be delayed otherwise the council workers would not get the bonus in time for Christmas.

The authority’s leader, Councillor Angie Dale told the meeting Coun Threlfall’s proposal was “a really good idea”.

After the meeting, North Yorkshire County Council leader Councillor Carl Les said the section 24 limit of £100,000 had been imposed to ensure there was no “spurious spending of cash reserves by authorities which are no longer going to be in existence”.

Coun Les added: “I wouldn’t say it’s bureaucracy, I would say it’s just another check and balance to make sure a scheme is valid. I think making sure it stays underneath that check and balance just to make sure it doesn’t have a further bit of scrutiny is not the intention of section 24.

“However, it would be up to individual councils to debate and decide and there’s no doubt that there’s a cost of living crisis affecting all people in the community. What they need to remember is that this is taxpayers’ money they are spending, who are also facing the cost of living crisis as well. “