BBC News England-leicestershire: Saturday, March 17, 2012.
Chauffeur-driven journeys made by the leader of Leicestershire County Council cost the authority more than £210,000 over six years, it has been revealed. The figure follows a Freedom of Information request by BBC Radio Leicester into David Parsons' expenses. The TaxPayers' Alliance called such spending "unacceptable" when the authority was making £74m of cuts.
Mr Parsons said he had increased his use of public transport to cut down on council business car journeys. Between 2006 and the end March 2012, accounts showed Conservative councillor Mr Parsons put in expenses and allowance claims totalling £1.13m.
Transparency call
He gets basic annual allowances of £56,000, including pension and National Insurance Contributions, with expenses on top.
In the same period Mr Parsons recorded 85,817 business miles in his official car, peaking at 20,564 in 2008/09 and only once going below 10,000 miles, which the council calculated as costing £210,567.
Robert Oxley, from the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "I think Leicestershire residents will be surprised to find they have been paying for his own personal chauffeur-driven motor taking him all over the country.
"The simple fact is MPs don't have their own private chauffeurs, so why should the leader of a council, especially at a time when councils need to make savings? It is simply unacceptable."
Liberal Democrat county councillor David Bill said: "I would have thought this sort of information should be made available to the public at the time it is spent, not five years later.
"It worries me it has taken this long and it has taken an outside body, in this case the media, to do the research."
Separate investigation;
In a statement, Mr Parsons said: "A significant proportion of the figures referred to are a breakdown of salary, allowances, NIC and pension contributions, as well as legitimate expenses incurred as a result of my duties as leader of the county council, but also in connection with my regional, national and international roles.
"Whilst these may appear excessive at first glance, especially going back over a considerable period of time, they are nonetheless a fair reflection of the busy nature of my role as leader of one of highest performing councils in the country."
Leicester City Council said elected mayor Peter Soulsby did have access to a civic car but it had not been used since the role was created in May 2011.
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire County Councils said the civic car was generally only used when several members of the authority were attending the same event.
Mr Parsons is currently the subject of an investigation by the county's standards board over his expenses with East Midlands Councils, a separate body and an inquiry which is not connected to the BBC FoI request.
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