The Daily Telegraph has been looking into how much money councils spend in the UK with credit cards. They seem pretty alarmed by what they have found:
Despite being ordered to cut spending by almost 30 per cent, town hall chiefs have continued to lavish hundreds of thousands of pounds on dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants, leisure trips and expensive gifts including iPads and video games while slashing jobs and scrapping front-line services.
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An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has uncovered details of apparently questionable spending decisions by councillors and local government officials, with more than ?2 million spent on travel over the last three years, including flights to Thailand, Kenya and Bermuda.
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Documents obtained by this newspaper show that the councils also spent ?2m on hotel bills, including stays at the famous Four Seasons in New York, the five-star Pan Pacific in Singapore, and the Athens Hilton.
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Hospitality bills totalling ?2.6m were paid on the cards, including dinners at Claridges, one of Britain?s most expensive hotels, hog roasts and champagne receptions, as well as tens of thousands of pounds spent booking tables at award ceremonies.
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A total of another ?500,000 was spent on gifts such as Tiffany jewellery, Gucci products and pure silk ties, while online shopping sprees racked up bills of more than ?300,000 at Argos and ?150,000 at Amazon.
It would be interesting to know which councils bought jewellery, and why! And why trips had to be made to Bermuda…
But bearing in mind this is apparently for the whole of the UK some of these figures don’t seem that high. For example, Argos is a pretty cheap place to buy stuff – you might have expected more than ?300,000 to have been spent there. And as one of the bits of spending that the Telegraph highlights is:
“Essex Council spent around ?4,000 on ?birds for a pet barn?, a chicken run and an ?incubator for the new hatchery? at Marsh Farm Country Park in 2010 and 2011. “
That may not be too extraordinary, buying farm items for a farm.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s a list of what The Daily Telegraph found that Rochford District Council had spent using a credit card. Most of it was for court fees and homelessness accomodation:
Total: ?54,731
Maintenance: N/A Training: N/A
Other: ?27,129 Stationery: N/A
Legal: ?16,560 Furniture: N/A
IT equipment: ?1,325 Travel: N/A
Publicity: ?4,784 Food: N/A
Hotels: ?3,425 Drink: N/A
Misc: ?759 Hospitality: N/A
11/28/2008 ?701
?2724
7/31/2008 ?3488.97
7/31/2008 ?4348.24
9/30/2009 Conf order for canon s5 camera ?1324.8
4/30/2009 Court Cost Fees ?527
6/30/2009 Court Cost Fees ?770
6/30/2009 Court Cost Fees ?1554
8/3/2009 Court Cost Fees ?1706
9/30/2009 Court Cost Fees ?2025
Court Cost Fees ?534
9/30/2009 Court Cost Fees ?675
10/30/2009 Court Cost Fees ?798
4/30/2010 Court Cost Fees ?516
6/30/2010 Court Cost Fees ?1074
9/30/2010 Court Cost Fees ?1029
11/5/2010 Court Cost Fees ?861
11/30/2010 Court Cost Fees ?903
12/31/2010 Court Cost Fees ?1803
1/31/2011 Court Cost Fees ?543
3/4/2011 Court Cost Fees ?627
3/31/2011 Court Cost Fees ?615
3/31/2011 Delivery of Council Newspaper ?2610.05
12/31/2010 Design of Council Newspaper ?2173.69
8/3/2009 Homelssness Accomodation ?2442
9/30/2009 Homelssness Accomodation ?2542
Homelssness Accomodation ?4342
10/30/2009 Homelssness Accomodation ?2088
10/30/2009 Homelssness Accomodation ?1628
11/30/2009 Homelssness Accomodation ?1796
12/16/2009 Homelssness Accomodation ?2054
1/16/2010 Homelssness Accomodation ?1855
12/16/2009 Hotel Accomodation ?544.45
Misc ?758.91
11/30/2010 Training Course ?750