Liberal Democrats on Redcar & Cleveland Council have attacked the Labour Town Hall bosses for allowing an 8% increase in spending on business mileage by staff.

The extra mileage occurred in 2010 compared with 2009 figures and came to light in a report to the Council’s Cabinet earlier this week.

This resulted in an extra 10.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions, not to mention the extra fuel costs.

Cllr Mary Ovens, Lib Dem Group Deputy Leader, raised the issue at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Labour council bosses were not able to give a satisfactory explanation for the increase.

Cllr Ovens said:

“The Council needs to leave no stone unturned in finding out why this has happened.”

“We are constantly being told about the need to cut costs, yet the council is allowing travel costs to shoot up like this.”

“How on earth does the council expect to hit its own carbon reduction targets when it allows this to happen?”

“The Council needs to make much more use of telephone conferencing and opportunities for staff to work from home.”