Peterborough City Council explains £900 bill for 'fish and chips'
A bill for £900 seemingly spent on ‘fish and chips’ by a council officer has been clarified by a leading Peterborough councillor.
Cllr Mohammed Jamil, the council’s cabinet Member for finance and corporate governance, said the bill was actually for the use of the Marigold Tavern in Peterborough by the local authority as a polling station.
He said that the term ‘fish and chips’ was used on the invoice from the venue.
He stated: “I can confirm that the £900 spend quoted as fish and chips was paid to the Marigold Tavern for use of their venue as a polling station.
"Fish and Chips was shown on the statement, perhaps because they have a fish and chips takeaway service in the village.”
His comments come after the cost, which was put on a council procurement credit card, was one 16 spending items that were queried by Peterborough resident Tom Holland at a recent meeting of Peterborough councillors.
He demanded that officers provide the receipts to show that the spending was necessary, value for money and part of council business.
Among the other items queried by Mr Holland were £132,000 on Amazon, £31,000 at Tesco and £245 with a reptile food supplier.
Cllr Jamil said: “It is important to make clear that although some of the areas listed by the resident may seem odd, there will be justifiable reasons for the spend, as shown by the fish and chip example.”
Cllr Jamil added: “Following last week's Full Council meeting officers are collating the information that the resident requested and that I agreed to provide.
"Given the level of spend we are being asked to evidence this will take some time, but we will publish information as soon as possible.
He said: "We are making good headway.
Cllr Jamil added: “As corporate parent to around 430 children we purchase items for children in care, as a parent would for their own child, and also to support those leaving care to be able to live independently.
"This will include white goods, bedding, kitchen utensils, TV licences and items from Amazon, B&M and other stores quoted.
"For our annual staff awards, individual winners receive gift vouchers and teams are able to claim back the cost of a meal.
"This spend is all covered by sponsorship and does not cost the council a penny.
He said: “As a council which provides the breadth of services we do for over 200,000 residents, with a gross budget of £547m, it is not unusual for us to spend the amounts that have been quoted by the resident and we will be able to evidence this shortly.
"We are happy to provide the information for this resident on this occasion, but it is not something we can agree to do regularly just so that he can attempt to criticise us and that is because of the amount of officer time it takes to do so."
The items on the P-card spending list:
- £132,000 with Amazon
- £160 with Pandora Jewellery
- £900 on a fish and chip meal in a single transaction
- £31,000 with Tesco, including 62 transactions at Tesco Serpentine Green, Hampton, averaging around £240 per transaction
- £42,000 with Argos
- £33,000 with Currys
- £2,400 with Asda
- £21,000 through PayPal
- £160 on Sky subscriptions
- £240 with eBay
- £3,100 on TV Licensing
- £50 with Temu
- £245 Peregrine Livefoods for £245 (Reptile Food supplier) One transaction
- £1,330 Darrell Else Furniture
- £1,400 B&M
- £1,370 B&Q