Chauffeur service costs revealed

Almost £27,000 was spent on a chauffeuring service for county councillors last year, according to a KCC report. Councillors on official business, including the chairman, leader and opposition leaders are all entitled to the hire service. Cllr Martin Whybrow (Green) claims the council is too “car centric” and more should be done to promote public transport. Leader Paul Carter was picked up at 6.15am last Wednesday at home for meetings with an MP, County Councils Network and a radio and newspaper interview. During the journey to London, he took a conference call and caught up on paperwork. Mr Carter said: “I work all the way up and all the way down in the car, which you could not do on the train. “Also when you look at those costs they have gone down quite substantially in the last year. “We have a couple of clapped out Volvos that have done more than 200,000 miles, which haven’t thankfully had too many repair bills, therefore we are running a pretty lean, mean organisation. “Wherever possible we car share, sometimes there are two officers travelling with me, which is cheaper than getting a rail ticket.” The councillor in charge of public transport, Mike Whiting, made no claims for train or bus tickets last year.