MORE than £1.2m has been spent on catering and hospitality by Barnsley Council in the last five years, it was revealed yesterday.
Questions were posed by Liberal Democrat Couns Hannah Kitching and David Greenhough, who both represent the Penistone West ward, at the full council meeting and probed the local authority’s expenditure.
In 2014/15, the figure was at its highest in the five-year period at £267,000, followed by £241,000 in 2015/16, £250,000 in 2016/17, £261,000 in 2017/18 and then £260,000 in 2018/19 - totalling £1.27m.
Cabinet spokesman Coun Alan Gardiner said the cost was ‘more than reasonable’ and cited events such as the annual Armed Forces Day, which honours soldiers past and present.
“You can’t put a price on that sort of occasion,” he added. “Barnsley is full of pride and it’s worth every penny, probably a lot more actually, so it’s more than reasonable.”
The Lib Dems also probed the council’s travel expenses, including hotels and flights, which resulted in Coun Gardiner revealing that £22,820 had been spent on flights in five years while hotels cost £93,355 during the same period.
“The flights are standard fares and we do not permit travel in business class,” he added. “In 2015/16, £11,540 was spent as opposed to £2,840 last year, but that was because of trips to Europe due to the grant funding scheme we were a part of.
“Hotel room rates in London are a lot, between £150 and £200 per night. The changes aren’t like the ones in Barnsley and we’re not having our staff stay in hovels.”
Consultant fees also topped more than £1m in 2018/19 - an ‘unavoidable’ figure due to outside advice being needed on the council’s key schemes such as the town centre’s ongoing redevelopment and plans to create a one-way road system off junction 37 of the M1.
Coun Gardiner said: “We avoid this wherever we can but we inevitably need outside advice in certain areas, especially with things like The Glass Works.
“However, we get value from what we pay for through the sheer amount of work consultants do.
“From time to time it’s impossible not require help outside the council.”
The meeting was told the council’s day-to-day spending has reduced by 41 per cent since 2009 - the heaviest drop in the country - which is a reduction equivalent of £688 per person.
“Labour’s been straight with people and although we’re not perfect, we run a good local authority here in Barnsley and have performed a miracle with a background of austerity,” council leader Sir Steve Houghton added.
“Staff have rolled their sleeves up, pulled their socks up and got on with it. We’ve made no false promises in order to secure votes and have done things right for people in the borough, something which we’ll keep doing.”
