Ferret readers will recall Alan Draper Town Clerk, was recently subjected to a freedom of information request simply asking for details of all members of staff and any individuals who have received travel expenses from May 2019, This should include costs for:
Providing travel, reimbursing travel, accommodation (if an employee needs to stay away overnight), meals and other ‘subsistence’ while travelling
Subsistence includes meals and any other necessary costs of travelling, for example parking charges, tolls, congestion charges or business phone calls.
You cannot claim reimbursement for trips such as:
Commuting from home to work and back
Personal trips such as picking up children from school
The mileage rate is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile after that for business-related driving. For motorcycles, the rate is 24p per mile, and for cycles – 20p per mile.
Apparently a large amount of claims had been made by one individual in particular.
Ferret would have thought this would be quite a simple request and the amounts received could be quickly located and reported back to the requester.
You have probably guessed that this was not the case and as we have come to expect the usual routine of asking for clarification and prevarication took place.
Apparently the routine way at Hemsworth Town council, is to make the payments in petty cash.
After taking legal advice (sought free this time from the Yorkshire local council’ association, YLCA) but this beggars the question, why this service hasn’t been used more Mr Draper?
Their response was “The Associations can advise that it would be reasonable to provide an annual figure for total staff mileage claims under an FOI request, rather than for individual members of staff.”
The total of all mileage expenses claimed by all members of staff from May 2019 is £2,387.89.
Now bearing in mind that:
- Council owned vehicles are available for use in working hours
- It is less than 3 miles from one end of the township (Fitzwilliam) to the other end (Hemsworth)
- In reality from the Waterpark where the vehicles are based, to any Hemsworth Town Council owned facility, isn’t very far at all.
Given the actual siting of the facilities, £2,387.89. seems a high figure for any mileage claims by staff using their own vehicles.
This answer makes Ferret wonder how petrol and diesel usage compare for this council to that of previous years?
My guess is that Kenyon has been claiming for delivéring meals to the elderly.
No one actually thought he was doing out of the goodness of his heart? Goodness? Nah he doesn’t know the meaning of the word. Heart, don’t make me laugh that will be rotting away in his loft, with the equally elusive certificates of professionalism,
Or am I just being a tiny bit cynical?