Shirehall bosses have cut back on free lunches for councillors – but critics say they should be axed completely.
Until recently, members have enjoyed a traditional lunch with wine – costing a total of £820 a time – before each full council meeting.
The lunches have been held in the Shrewsbury room at the council offices for a number of years.But because of budget cuts, the free meals will now be ditched and councillors have been told to pay for their own food or bring in sandwiches.
However, the lunches will still be offered before the annual and budget meetings twice a year – leading to claims that the council’s integrity could be undermined.
A beef or chicken main course, followed by pudding and a coffee are just some of the items on the former council menu for 73 councillors and a number of officers from the hierarchy of Shropshire Council.
With the council already proposing cuts in services of £2.2million and with 1,300 posts due to be scrapped over the next five years, free sandwiches will also be cut before other committee meetings and a water fountain will now replace bottled water.
Councillor Jon Tandy said: “The dinners should have been cut completely. If the council are going to make cuts at the budget meeting do the public think it’s right that we then sit down to a nice meal after? It’s a job at the end of the day and it has serious implications on our integrity if we are treated different to anybody else.
“The actual costs to the council budget are probably minimal but it’s the principle of the matter which is just not right – I shall be taking my sandwiches to the next one.”
Peter Nutting, councillor for the Copthorne ward, said: “There’s a perfectly good cafeteria downstairs that I always use and I don’t see why they can’t use that. It’s a waste of money in this day and age.”
Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow said: “We have stopped serving meals at the full council meetings but will provide a light lunch at a minimal cost for the annual meeting and when we debate the annual budget, when the meetings last all day. “This is so councillors can get on with the important business of the meeting quickly.”
By David Seadon
