MORE than £11,000-worth of stationery, lunchtime Domino’s pizzas and bottles of Champagne have been bought using Rushmoor Borough Council credit cards.

Among the hundreds of items, which are all paid off each month using public money, the council has spent more than £2,500 in hotels, as well as nearly £1,200 in supermarkets.

The council has also spent at least £1,200 on £5 vouchers, which are given to members of the public as a reward for completing feedback forms about council-run projects.

The council handed over its credit card statements for the financial year between April 2010 and March 2011, after the News & Mail requested the information.

Chief executive Andrew Lloyd says he does not believe any of the transactions – the majority of which cover day-to-day items from Jewson’s, Amazon, B&Q and stationery suppliers – are unreasonable.

But the council admitted public money has paid for some council employees’ retirement Champagne, as well as the £400 hiring of a hotel room and buffet for one day of staff training.

Mr Lloyd said the £181.84 bill from www.champagne.co.uk was for six bottles of bubbly, which would be given over the year as retirement gifts for those members of staff aged 60 or over. Mr Lloyd believed a £30 gift, to thank staff for long-service, was justified.

He said: “The council values long service and for a council which spends millions, we feel a small gift is not unreasonable, and indeed not untypical of many in the private sector.”

A £58 bill for pizzas and garlic bread from Dominos pizza was initially believed by the council to have been bought for staff for an annual general meeting.

It later emerged the money had been paid back to the council by the staff’s sports and social club, who bought the food for one of its meetings.

The council says other transactions, including a £41.49 Charlton Athletic FC football shirt and a £427 bill for an ‘80s day at Ascot Racecourse in July 2010, were also covered by council staff paying their costs back.

These sums were paid into different council accounts, the statements for which have not been seen by the News & Mail.

The statements also show the council has spent money on vouchers to give to the public, for answering questions about a ‘customer insight project’, and a community safety project, run alongside police. Mr Lloyd said it was a good incentive for people to give honest feedback, but he admitted the council was giving these rewards less and less, as finances were squeezed.

A total of more than £2,500 also went on hotel bills, including the De Vere in Farnborough. Mr Lloyd said one booking for that hotel, which cost £409.80, was for a conference room – which included flipcharts, projector, internet connection and a buffet lunch – used for a training day for Rushmoor staff.

Other bookings included a £194.85 bill for a meeting room used by chief finance officers from local authorites, which each authority is responsible for organising on a rota basis, and a £295.92 bill for a room used by Rushmoor Schoolplus.

Mr Lloyd also said the council believed a £41.92 bill for Union Jack flags and a £130 Asda bill for coconuts, water, sweets and oranges, to be used on Victoria Day, was a good use of taxpayer’s money.

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