A group created to look at the future of a chauffeur-driven car for Lichfield District Council’s chairman have recommended not renewing current the lease.
Councillors have been examining options for the civic transport since June when it was revealed that more than £16,000 had been earmarked to cover the cost of the Jaguar XF for the coming year.
Labour’s Cllr Eric Drinkwater branded the spending “crazy”, but former chairman Cllr David Leytham said the vehicle was “absolutely essential”.
Now a working group of councillors has recommended axing the current lease and using private car supplier when needed instead – insisting the move could slash the civic transport budget by more than half.
“It has been agreed that some form of vehicle would still be required as so to ensure a level of safety and security and not discriminate any member who could not drive from taking up the position,” the the group said in a report.
“It is recommended that the lease of the chairman’s car be terminated and a contract with a local service provider be sourced.”
The chairman’s car was scrutinised as part of a wider review of the £50,000 civic budget.
The task group has also recommended reducing the number of events attended by the council’s civic leaders each year to 50, saying that the civic role had “detached itself” from the council’s key targets under the current system.
In the 2014/15 period, the chairman’s car was used on 130 occasions – and councillors are now questioning whether less events would generate more value.
The report added: “It was noted that the current process was for invitations to be accepted at the discretion of the chairman themselves without a requirement to consider what added value it would give to the council or its strategic priorities.
“The task group also concluded that there was a risk that the validity and prestige of the role as chairman became somewhat diluted when so many engagements were attended by them.”
A range of charity events organised by each chairman could also be scrapped in favour of a £1,000 donation from the civic expenses budget instead, while a traditional civic dinner could be off the menu too.
“It was felt that although the money raised [from the charity fundraising events] looked a sizeable amount from the outside, it was not a true figure,” the task group’s report added.
“After deeper analysis, it was discovered that once expenditure for creating and running the events had been extracted, the real picture was that they were not as successful as thought – costing £2,000 to generate £1,000.
“It was also felt that the civic dinner was no longer a popular event, especially with new and younger members of the council resulting in poor attendance.
“It was noted that to ensure the presence of other civic heads, the chairman would be required to accept and pay to attend their civic dinners, resulting in nothing but an endless circuit of events with no benefit to the district.”
The report will be considered at a meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday (September 9).
