Following a Freedom of Information request by the Times and Citizen, it was revealed that Central Bedfordshire Council spent £898,932.95 between January and June on staff travel costs.

That is the equivalent of more than £307 per member of staff employed by the authority in April 2009.

The authority says the high figure is due to a major programme of reducing office space that will save the taxpayer £1million over the next four years.

But Lib Dem Councillor Peter Blaine branded the excessive spend a "waste of council tax payers' money."

He said: "This just shows how much of council taxpayers' money they have wasted through insufficient planning at Central Beds' inception.

They should have sorted out the offices a lot sooner than this."
Central Beds Council was created in April 2009 in a shake-up of
Bedfordshire's local government, when Beds County Council was abolished.

The figures also reveal that 21 redundancies have been made since then, costing the council £257,242.

And £133,636 has been spent on the Gypsy and Traveller consultations since 2006. Councillor Maurice Jones, portfolio holder for finance, governance and people at Central Beds said: "We have had to move some staff to offices which are further away from their homes.

"As a result of employment terms and conditions, we have an obligation to recompense staff affected for a maximum four year term. Staff moves started in June and will be complete by August."

The council promised it would look at a number of initiatives to reduce the increase, including telephone conferencing.



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