Dear, oh dear! Poor old Essex council seems to be having a rough time of it lately...
You might remember Lord Hanningfield, the peer who was jailed fraud? Well it seems that whilst he was in prison, Essex County Council has been continuing to pay him his expenses allowance as a councillor - until a public uproar put a stop to it.
The excuse was that they were obliged to keep paying him while he was appealing against his conviction and now that the appeal has been held, they have stopped. You might think that this was piss poor and showed a distinct lack of backbone.
Anyway, Essex is also coming under criticism for its fleet of three chaffeur driven Jaguars - now cut to just one mainly used by the chairman, Rodney Bass - which it uses as a 'cost effective way of conveying councillors about their duties'. Ironically, it was Hanningfield's use of the car to ferry him between Essex and the House of Lords that focused attention on the fleet. A Freedom of Information request revelaed that the council spent over £677,000 on the cars over the past five years - and that's a lot of taxi fares!
Mike Mackrory, Liberal Democrat deputy opposition leader, said: "I find it quite extraordinary and one really wonders what on earth the journeys were and how that could be justified?" Mr Bass on the other hand commented that if the prime minister could have a car, so should he, because of the number of functions he attends.
Peter Martin, its new leader, said: "We're certainly not a profligate council. We are extremely tight with our money. We are offering extremely good value for money to our residents."
You might like to form your own opinions - especially if you are an Essex ratepayer...