Westminster councillors to down 240 bottles of wine - at your expense

10.23.07pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 16th Jun 2006

Does one of these barrels contain the 40 gallons of alcohol taxpayers will buy for Westminster councillors?

Westminster councillors look set to down 240 bottles of wine before the next local election, according to official Council figures released to the Liberal Democrats under the Freedom of Information Act.

At each meeting of the full Council, an average of 12 bottles of wine are consumed. With around five meetings each year that is 60 bottles of wine annually. So with the next local election not until 2010, councillors look likely to get through an incredible 240 bottles before then - the equivalent of 40 gallons.

Commenting, local Liberal Democrat Stuart Bonar, who obtained these figures, said:

"What an outrageous waste of public money! Do we really pay our Council Tax so that Conservative and Labour councillors can squander it on a boozy end to their meetings?

"I suspect there is a lot more waste like this going on and the LibDems will do their best to uncover it."