EXCLUSIVE: Information request reveals the thousands of pounds council has spent on wining and dining

2:09pm Monday 21st January 2013 in News Exclusive By Stephanie Cureton

nformation request reveals the thousands of pounds council has spent on restaurant's bills nformation request reveals the thousands of pounds council has spent on restaurant's bills

WIRRAL Council’s struggle to reduce spending by more than £100m has not been helped by officials forking out nearly £7,500 on food and drinks for special guests and local dignitaries.

A response to a Freedom of Information request this week has revealed £6,865 has been paid by the council to Hoylake restaurant the Portrait House in under a year on food, drinks and waiting-on staff for official functions at Wallasey and Birkenhead town halls.

Among those attending the lunches and dinners were the Mayor and Mayoress of Wirral, local councillors and the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, as well as guests from the Royal Marines and army veterans.

The information request, submitted by a member of the public last November, asked specifically for the total bill from The Portrait House, The Royal Liverpool Golf Club and The Chantilly Tea Rooms in Hoylake for 2012/2013.

In its response, the local authority stated its total spending to The Portrait House was £6,865.80 while £623.59 was spent at the golf club.

According to invoices submitted by the council, invited guests were treated to three-course meals and mixed buffets which included poached salmon, mini-porkpies and duck spring rolls.

The total bill for waitresses and chefs for the various events came in at £800 while almost £190 was spent on table linen, napkins and paper plates.

The mayor’s annual lunch at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club last August racked up a bill of £96 for eight bottles of wine. The total amount spent was £623.59.

Catering for the Annual Council buffet came to £2,620.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of campaign group the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Given that spending cuts have to be made, the council should be cutting back on the catering budget.

"If local politicians can’t even keep the lunch bill under control how are taxpayers meant to trust them to make the tough choices over public spending?

“Bills for this kind of expenditure should be published as a matter of course so local residents picking up the tab each time can scrutinise how their cash is being spent. "

Ironically, a special meeting of the council’s ruling cabinet next month is expected to announce large-scale staff redundancies and reductions to services.

Cut backs planned for the next three years total £107m.

A Wirral Council spokesman said: "The majority of these payments relate to catering for civic functions hosted by the Mayor of Wirral at either Wallasey or Birkenhead Town Hall.

"These include providing food for invited guests on occasions such as Remembrance Sunday and for other civic receptions. The catering was supplied by a local company based on their ability to provide the appropriate level of service and value for money.

"The event at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club was a lunch hosted by the Mayor of Wirral for other civic leaders from around the region.”

Comments(17)

Positive thinker says...
2:20pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Everyone's got to eat and drink

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Robin of Loxely says...
2:58pm Mon 21 Jan 13

No mention of how much, if any monies went to Chantilly for services?

Very interesting as the previous 2 owners of the cafe space that Chantilly now occupy could not make a go of it and they were in an identical guise.

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don't look back in anger says...
6:08pm Mon 21 Jan 13

All council blue collar workers are told to take their own lunch to any courses they are sent on, while the white collar wine and dine at top restaurants and golf clubs. Absolute joke.

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ginger26 says...
7:48pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Where does the mayor live ,anyone know

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Hugo1008 says...
8:08pm Mon 21 Jan 13

More and More evidence relating to why we do not need more than 60 expensive parasites in the guise of Councilors on Wirral.

This kind of abuse of position by so called elected representatives of the people.
That is what Councilors are expected and supposed to be, and this kind of abuse with Ratepayers Cash includes the highly paid Employees who live lavish lifestyles all at our expense.

Hence the reason that the almost total lack of Governance from Councilors in Wirral has gained it the title of the worst Managed and Governed local authority in the entire British Isles.

So help us bring in the Proper people to examine this shambles and sort it once and for all.

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daggers drawn says...
9:57pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Positive thinker wrote:
Everyone's got to eat and drink
I agree with Positive Thinker. I am GLAD that business was given to The Portrait House, Hoylake, its a LOCAL business and I expect they appreciate the work. I assume it was all done above board by a tender. A few years ago a Manchester firm where given the contract, I asked then and ask now why? We have many catering establishments in Wirral and I think the Council should be made to award contracts to these companies. Keep the Money and work in Wirral! We need it.
As for receptions for our armed forces I am happy to contribute to this via my council tax, those men and women do a fantastic job for us.
I was however amazed that so little had been spent at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, perhaps money was paid to RIOCH ? There was plenty of corporate hospitality at the last ladies event, or was this paid via Invest Wirral, still a mystery who paid for that. Perhaps that will be another request.

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PaulCa says...
10:39pm Mon 21 Jan 13

I wonder if our civic dignitaries and public servants enjoyed the finest fare and drinky poos at a standard to which they are accustomed?

It would also be handy to know whether the person who came out with this quote attended any of the functions:

“We therefore need to spend less on ourselves in order to help mitigate the impact of the cuts on our most vulnerable residents."

That's right. Did CEO Graham Burgess sieze the chance to mingle and network, whilst partaking of 'menus du jour''? Or did he stay in and order a pizza?

There is only a very small part of the answer here:

http://tinyurl.com/a
ukpbor

I think we should be told.

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bigfoot says...
11:33pm Mon 21 Jan 13

It's only the style of trough that differs!

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birkenvegas says...
6:53pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Would they spend so much on fine wine & dining if they paid for it themselves ?

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Jimrob says...
10:31pm Tue 22 Jan 13

"officials forking out nearly £7,500 on food and drinks for special guests and local dignitaries."

Yeah. And I'm a monkey's uncle!!!!

Tell us how much was really spent. If the press release relating to "That" video are anything to go by, we can at least double the officially released sum and then add some more for good measure. We may then be getting somewhere close to the ACTUAL figure.

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bickyboy says...
10:15am Wed 23 Jan 13

I too suspect that the figures quoted are way too modest.

There are at least two massive beanos each year at the Town Hall: one where the new Mayor is welcomed in, and another when the old Mayor is ushered out. On each occasion 400 guests are provided with free food and drink, and even if you apply an extremely modest figure of ten quid a head and allow for the fact that councillors make a small personal contribution you still come up with several grand for those two functions alone.

Someone's not only eating porky pies, but telling them too.

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Positive thinker says...
6:27pm Wed 23 Jan 13

There only annoyed because they weren't there enjoying the fine food and wine

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Positive thinker says...
6:27pm Wed 23 Jan 13

There only annoyed because they weren't there enjoying the fine food and wine

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Hugo1008 says...
12:50pm Thu 24 Jan 13

positive Stinker is a class act, so obviously a liberal democrat by nature willing to sell his soul to whom ever will buy.

It is not annoyance that anybody feels it is pure disgust and abhorrence of the positive could not give a monkeys attitude from the "I'm alright Jack Brigade" shame on them.

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Positive thinker says...
3:24pm Thu 24 Jan 13

If they all went to KFC and shared a few bargin buckets of chicken
and payed themselves,there would still be individuals on this blog who wouldn't believe them and say it was corrupt

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bickyboy says...
8:01pm Thu 24 Jan 13

A class act, alright.

He can spell "individual" but not "paid"....remarkable
.

Just as a matter of interest, PT, when are you up for parole?

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Positive thinker says...
5:23pm Sun 27 Jan 13

Have some respect for some who takes an interest in the local news

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