Crumbs! Councils fork out £300,000 on tea and biscuits

IT’S the sort of spending that could land them in hot water with voters – but councils across the UK are splurging more than £300,000 a year on tea and biscuits between them.

The biggest spender is Lincolnshire, which splashed out £16,000 on hot drinks for its councillors as they raised council tax by an inflation-busting 4.5 per cent and made £16 million of cuts to services. Meanwhile, Dorset spent almost £14,000 on McVitie’s Family Circle biscuits, Typhoo tea and Kenco coffee.

The figures – and the brands each local authority favour s–were revealed in responses to Freedom of Information requests made by The Mail on Sunday.

The politically correct Labour council in Hackney, East London, naturally went for an ethical brand, spending £8,144 on Fairtrade tea and biscuits.

But displaying refined Home Counties taste, councillors in the Berkshire town of Slough opted for upmarket Twinings tea and Lichfields biscuits, spending a total of £3,717.

Figures from 278 authorities showed Crawford’s Teatime to be the most popular biscuit brand, with nine councils opting for the selection pack of six types of snack, which sells for £1.89.

PG Tips proved to be the most popular teabag, with 38 councils listing it as their regular brew, followed by Tetley with 31 councils. Every council was asked how much they spent in 2018 on tea and biscuits for council committee meetings, and on which brands. Big-spending Lincolnshire refused to say what sort of refreshment they bought. Northampton Council offered the most choice for their meetings, with 12 types of biscuit, including fig rolls and fruit shorties, at a cost of just £791, which included Fairtrade and Twinings tea. Orkney had eight type of biscuit – including Lyons’ Toffypops and Crawford’s Jam Rings – along with Fairtrade tea costing £260 in all. But pennywise Warwickshire laid on home-made biscuits.

Harry Fone, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be boiling mad at these figures. Council tax rises every year, yet councils continue to take the biscuit.’

Nigel West at Lincolnshire County Council said drinks machines in committee rooms are not just for councillors, but also visitors. ‘At 84p per cup, we don’t feel the cost is excessive,’ he added.