Central Bedfordshire Council spent £772k on credit cards over the past three years

MORE than £770,000 has been spent on credit cards used by council employees over the past three years, it has emerged.

A Freedom of Information request sent by BoS to Central Bedfordshire Council revealed £772,668 was spent on various items during between 2012-2015. That’s an average of £705 per day.

Transactions include a total of £57,243 spent on retail giant Amazon, £8,551 at Mothercare, £6,789.17 on trainline.com and £2,085 on airline tickets

Other purchases listed are £1,104 at Thorpe Park, £124.95 at Long Tall Sally, a clothes store in London for tall women, £115.83 on the Apple iTunes store and £490 at a beauty company called Minikini Limited, which lists pubic hair colouring among its services.

The number of cards issued by the council has grown over the years. In 2012/13 it gave out 96 cards but in 2014/15 that number stood at 123.

Spending in each year also followed a similar pattern, going up from £187,560 in 2012/13 to £340,289 in 2014/15. Figures for this financial year will not be available until the accounts are finalised and audited next year.

The revelation comes as Central Bedfordshire Council announ-ced this week it would be withdrawing its local plan and creating a new one, after it was criticised by a planning inspector for not co-operating enough with neighbouring authorities.

The authority has so far spent £86,166 on legal costs on a housing dispute with Luton Borough Council.

Tim Smart, a Bedfordshire businessman who has criticised the council in the past for its spending on projects, such as the £1.8 million renovation of Court Drive in Dunstable, called for the authority to ‘be transparent’ about its expenditure.

He said: “Someone needs to come out and tell the truth as to why the money was spent.

“Why would you spend all that money with Amazon?”

Dia Chakravarty, political director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said council had a ‘responsibility’ to cut down on their spending.

She said: “That amount will certainly raise eyebrows.

“When families up and down the country are feeling the pinch, councillors have a responsibility to keep costs down.

“Councils regularly plead poverty and cite lack of funds as a reason for cutting services.

“It is then difficult to

justify this sort of spending on taxpayer-funded credit cards.”

Bedfordshire on Sunday asked Central Bedfordshire for a comment but the authority failed to provide a response by our deadline.