The leader of Leicestershire County Council stands to be given the boot by his Tory colleagues next month after clocking up bills of more than £200,000 on chauffeur-driven travel. The last straw for came for David Parsons when it emerged he had been driven to his daughter’s wedding in the authority’s luxury Daimler — and refused to pay the council.
Parsons has been widely criticised for his office expenses, which have cost taxpayers a staggering total of £1 million over the past five years. He is particularly enamoured of the local authority’s Daimler — spending a whopping £210,000 of taxpayers’ money on travel. Over the past six years he has taken 202 trips to London in the chauffeur-driven vehicle, costing £280 each time. Officials have calculated that more than £24,000 could have been saved had he taken the train.
Apparently of the view that the council was a surrogate bank account, at one point he had racked up an unofficial taxpayer-funded overdraft of £5,400. He still owes the voters of Leicestershire over £1,800 for flights taken six years ago.
Last Tuesday, the county’s Standards Committee backed independent report saying that David Parsons breached the councillor’s code of conduct four times. He will face a motion of no confidence in a secret ballot next month brought by Tory councillors axed from the cabinet last month.
Astonishingly, Parsons is labouring under the delusion that he can cling on:
“I believe that these attacks against me have been politically motivated. Due process has been satisfied and I now intend to draw a line under the matter.”
Scrapbook hopes the door doesn’t hit his backside on the way out.
2 Comments
It seems we would find more examples of ‘The something for Nothing’ culture amongst todays Tories. So divorced from real life!
Tris hopes it does… and then that a bus drives over him…