Home

News

Is this where our council tax goes?

25 May 2007

As part of the IWCA’s ongoing campaign to highlight wasteful practices at the town hall, Cllr Claire Kent has queried Oxford City Council’s use of expensive hotels for meetings attended by senior council officers.

Recently over £3,000 was spent hosting a ‘Business Planning’ event for twelve council managers at the Shillingford Bridge Hotel in Wallingford, including a 2-night stay.

In a question to full council, Claire Kent asked if this was good use of public money when the council has a brand new conference room for such events.

The council’s £78,000 a year Housing Director, Michael Lawrence, who attended the Shillingford Bridge hotel event for part of the time, argued that the use of on-site conference rooms had been tried in the past and only resulted in frequent interruptions regarding day to day issues and therefore ‘did not deliver the positive outcomes that are now being achieved.’

Cllr Kent commented, ‘Leaving aside the fact that this meeting was held at the weekend when interruptions were unlikely, there is clearly a management issue at the council if officers feel they can’t hold a meeting without being interrupted. Surely a simple “do not disturb” sign would do the job?’

Through her investigations, Claire has discovered that the Shillingford Bridge meeting was not a one off, with evidence coming to light that taxpayers’ money was used on a previous occasion to book rooms at the Randolph Hotel for a meeting.

Yet if officers get their way we will see more of the like, as Michael Lawrence recently confirmed that he intends to endorse further events of this nature.

Claire Kent said, ‘The IWCA will be actively opposing plans for any future use of public money in this way by putting pressure on the Lib Dem administration and Labour councillors, whose support they rely on, to keep a tighter reign on council spending by unelected officers.’

Churchill Independent, issue 13