Essex county councillors vote to end free hot meals

Councillors in Essex are to give up free hot meals funded by taxpayers who last year paid a total £16,000 for their three-course lunches.

Essex County Council was one of the last councils in England and Wales where councillors could get a free meal every weekday.

Councillors voted on Tuesday to end the arrangement in January.

Last year Essex county councillors consumed 1,925 free lunches, at an average cost of £6.95 per meal.

Cabinet members from the ruling Conservatives munched through the most in Essex. Councillor Rodney Bass, cabinet member for Highways and Transport, claimed the most free lunches at a cost of £808 last year.

Labour and the Green councillors did not use the free service - although in previous years Labour had taken some free meals.

Tuesday's free menu in the Members' Room

To Start: Tomato soup

Main: Thai Beef satay or vegetarian spring rolls with rice

Dessert: Double chocolate sponge pudding with chocolate custard

Other councils, including Lincolnshire, provide free hot meals for councillors but only on days when there is a full council meeting.

However, David Finch, Conservative leader on Essex County Council, said even those meals will be paid for by members, and not out of the council's annual budget of just more than £900m.

Councillor Julie Young, Labour group leader, said she welcomed "the change of heart by Essex Tories".

"We have been calling on the administration to end free meals for councillors, putting this in our budget amendment for the past two years," she said.

Professor Tony Travers, from the London School of Economics, said free hot meals for councillors were "considered the norm in the past" but had disappeared in most places with "successive waves of austerity".

"It's just hard for any voter these days to see why elected representatives would have their food paid for," he said.

"Most people don't get a free lunch where they work."

Conservative Councillor Ray Gooding, cabinet member for education, claimed the third highest number of free meals, at a cost of £662.60 last year.

He told the BBC earlier: "Clearly over the years it has been quite a good way of networking, of getting us together.

"I do think there is a perception that we are getting something for nothing."