Westminster council tax-payers foot bill for staff sports cars
March 9, 2009 7:50 PM
The cars involved include a BMW Z4 roadster
Conservative-run Westminster council spends over £89,000 per year leasing over two dozen cars for senior staff, including sports cars like the BMW Z4 and Mazda RX-8, according to information released by the council under the Freedom of Information Act.
The cost of leasing each of the 26 cars ranges from £1,445 for a SEAT Ibiza to £5,845 for a Volvo XC90. The second most expensive, a Jaguar X-Type, adds £5,228 to the bill.
Commenting, LibDem parliamentary candidate for Westminster North, Mark Blackburn, said, "I am sure that local people will be as dumbfounded as I was to learn that part of their Council Tax bill pays for sports cars for Westminster bigwigs.
"With recession biting, people everywhere are counting the pennies. Despite that, Westminster seems to think it is okay to pay thousands of pounds of our money to lease sports cars."
He continued, "There is no council in the country with less justification for spending money providing cars to staff. Westminster is slap bang in the middle of London. I cannot think of a council building that isn't a few minutes' walk from a Tube or train station, or a bus route.
"The council itself admits that air quality in Westminster is poor and needs to improve. That is not helped by having top staff driving around in these cars, especially beasts like the Hyundai Santa Fe and the Volvo XC90. Goodness knows what the fuel consumption is on cars like that.
"A Liberal Democrat-controlled Westminster would look to cut out excesses like this."
In full, the leased fleet for senior staff is made up of two Volvos, a Jaguar, a Hyundai, a Mazda, an Alfa Romeo, four BMWs, three Hondas, four Toyotas, two Audis, five Volkswagens, a Vauxhall and a SEAT.
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