Monday, 6 August 2012

Posh West Berkshire Council staff cars

Well after waiting longer than the duration of time that West Berkshire says it will respond in full to Freedom of Information requests, I finally have the figures requested for spend on executive/ staff cars. And the results are that over the past 4 years - West Berkshire has spent £2807788 on this area. The breakdown is as follows:

2008/09 £843,634
2009/10 £737,990
2010/11 £666,807
2011/12 £559,357

The figures show a decline year on year as schemes have gradually closed to new members of staff, but that still means there are a raft of West Berkshire employees that use high end, high performance vehicles when they could quite easily use public transport, local taxi companies or West Berkshire's more than generous reimbursements for using their own vehicles on Council business. How can West Berkshire persist in feathering it's staff's nest while making cuts to the services it is supposed to provide to the area's most vulnerable? Please write to your local Councillor, MP or newspaper and state your exasperation at the extravagance.