Newcastle council publishes spending data online

TAXPAYERS can now see in greater detail how their council is spending their money.

Newcastle Borough Council has become the latest authority in the region to publish online all invoices of more than �500.

Lists for October and November, which cover everything from stationery and postage costs to major capital projects, have now been made available on the council's website.

Each item includes information on the amount spent, the supplier used, the responsible unit within the council, and the "expenses code", which gives a vague description of the type of spending.

Some of the more notable items over the two months include:

�25,791 paid to consultants, including Community First Partnership and estate agents Daniel and Hulme.

�11,869 paid to cover conference and seminar costs to organisations including Staffordshire County Council, Madeley High School and Newcastle College.

�840 paid to DB Design for publicity, and �747.50 paid to former Stoke-on-Trent City Council press officer Nigel Howle by the communications department.

The two biggest items on November's list are �342,000 paid to Morgan Sindall, the company building Newcastle's new swimming pool, and �217,200.42 paid to Concrete Repairs, which carried out repairs to Midway car park.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has called on all councils in the country to publish this information by January.

But Conservative borough council leader Simon Tagg, pictured, said it had been the authority's intention to become more transparent anyway.

He said: "This is something we've wanted to do since the summer, but it's taken a while to get the system up and running. These days we have to be more accountable with public money, and that's quite right.

"I think this information will be useful to councillors as well as members of the public, as we haven't had a breakdown of spending before. I was looking through it myself and it led me to query the amount we were paying for publicity.

"It will also be useful to local companies. They'll be able to see which suppliers are currently being used, and so they might decide to put in a tender themselves."

While the precise nature of many of the items on the lists can often be guessed at, others are covered by rather vague expenses codes such as "materials", "stock" and "other fees for services".

Mr Tagg acknowledged this was a problem, and said the council would be seeking to address it.

He added: "We will be looking to improve the information provided. At first we just wanted to make sure the basic details were up before the January deadline, but now I think we should look at explaining the expenses code so people have a better idea what the money is being spent on, and also put contact details for officers in case people want to make further inquiries."

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is now the only authority in the region yet to publish invoices over �500, although it plans to put them online within the next few weeks.

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/32715/f/503368/s/11652807/l/0L0Sthisisstaffordshire0O0Cnews0Cmoney0Espent0Carticle0E30A787770Edetail0Carticle0Bhtml/story01.htm

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