Friday 5 June 2009

Expenses Scandal Hits Berkshire Councillors

The reverberations of the ongoing expenses scandal continue to spread out and LibDem Wokingham PPC Prue Bray is proved right that it would inevitably suck in councillors from Berkshire.

The 52 councillors in West Berkshire were in receipt of £1/2m worth of additional travel expenses - on top of their standard allowances.

According to Liam Sloan although 14 councillors made no claims the stench of corruption surrounds Conservative Joe Mooney from Birch Copse, who racked up the highest expenses with claims of £2,830.60, while a note on the file showed a councillor had been officially warned off first-class rail travel after submitting a claim for expenses incurred attending a planning conference in Scotland during September.

In other news Conservative former leader of the council, Kintbury councillor David Rowles has been forced to apologise for a breach of the code of conduct when he did not declare an interest in a planning application.

Meanwhile Cllr Warren Swaine and RBWM leader David Burbage wash their hands of improper behaviour with a declaration of their innocence.

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Update: Elsewhere, Bracknell LibDem PPC Ray Earwicker points out that allowances provided by Bracknell Forest Borough Council "have always been among the highest" despite being among the smallest councils in the country. He says Conservative council leader Cllr Paul Bettison is given £38,000 in allowances plus £5,000 in subsistence expenses.

Oranjepan says:
Isn't it a strange coincidence that Berkshire's blogging representatives are more accountable - and those that don't, aren't!

5 comments:

  1. GIDEON MACK5 June 2009 at 13:27

    Labour is now in self destruct mode, the Tories have approximately two people worthy of government, the one trick ponies like the BNP will only ever get the 'lip service' vote so I guess that means the Lib Dems should do rather well - I hope so.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5 June 2009 at 21:36

    Some politicians have got a cheek!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glenn5 June 2009 at 23:06

    I'm really beginning to like you Gideon Mack.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous8 June 2009 at 22:10

    Understandably local councillors don't get as much stick as MP's because any money they get from the job is through expenses... but nonetheless, how someone can have the cheek of travelling first class to and from Scotland, running up a bill of close to £3,000! Can only be a Tory! Then it's reported that he cannot claim it again!! So does that mean they paid him?? I might have to nip round the corner and pay him a visit.

    At work i deal with expenses for certain people and i scrunitise even if someone tries to claim expenses on a coffee and biscuit on the train!

    The one thing about the £2,830.60 first class ticket aside from claiming it back from the taxpayer is that it shows how ridiculous 'public' transport is in this country. Every effort should be made to lower the cost and encourage people on trains. However, just doing a quick search for a flight from london-glasgow and i have been quoted £67. Perhaps carbon emissions should be sacrificed to save the taxpayer money??? (Actually, no).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Paul Walter9 June 2009 at 11:56

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

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