A deal has been agreed for Lichfield District Council to spend almost £27,000 over the next four years to lease a new car for use by staff and civic leaders.
The local authority has signed the agreement on a new electric Mercedes EQA.
The agreement will cost the council £6,746 annually for the next four years.
A spokesperson for Lichfield District Council said:
“We have leased a pool car, available to employees of Lichfield District Council when on council business.
“It is fully electric and is to be used instead of petrol vehicles, where possible, when officers are required to travel.
“The chair of the council will now also use this vehicle rather than having his or her own dedicated vehicle for official engagements, which has historically been the case.”
Lichfield District Council spokesperson
The agreement for the car, which has a range of 264 miles and can fully charge in half-an-hour, will also see a charger installed.
The council said the vehicle would also form part of efforts within the local authority to tackle climate change.
“Members were clear that, in order to support our net zero ambitions, this vehicle should be electric.
“Use of this vehicle will also be more efficient than reimbursing staff on a per mile basis.”
Lichfield District Council spokesperson
Driving the debate on the civic car
The provision of a car for use by civic leaders at the district council has long been an issue of debate at the council, with a 2016 review eventually seeing the vehicle downgraded from a Jaguar to a Ford Mondeo.
Cllr David Leytham, who chaired the overview and scrutiny committee at the time and is a former chairman of the council, had previously described the civic car as “absolutely essential”.
A meeting on the issue in 2015 also saw Cllr Joseph Powell suggest the vehicle was more than just a perk of the job for civic leaders:
“It’s important that we make it clear that the car isn’t used for just having drinks and nice meals – we use it for lots of very useful meetings with the council, such as visiting homosexual groups.”
Cllr Joseph Powell speaking at a Lichfield District Council meeting in 2015
More recently, a former chairman and leader of the council said the civic car was “an essential tool of the trade” after Cllr Rob Birch had suggested it was “pretentious and costly”.
Earlier this year Cllr Derick Cross said that the lack of a car for civic leaders while a new one was being sourced demonstrated that “everything seems to be falling apart and going downhill”.
