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Nottinghamshire Council’s leader says his administration will check if the councillors’ expenses system for travel “is right” after nearly £44,000 was claimed last year.

Figures produced by the Conservative-run authority show, across the 66 members elected onto the council, £43,983.22 was claimed for travel in the most recent financial year.

The figures, accurate for the year to March 31, 2022, were more than £10,000 higher than the £32,254.55 figure claimed a year earlier.

This included £35,206.42 in claims across the Conservative administration’s 35 councillors, with a further £7,281.10 claimed by Labour’s 15 politicians.

Coun Ben Bradley, Mansfield MP and Nottinghamshire Council leader, outside the council headquarters in West Bridgford.

The Independent Alliance’s 15 members claimed £1,189.70 while the remaining £306 was claimed by unaligned Independent Coun Steve Garner, member for Mansfield South

Some councillors expensed nothing for the financial year while the claims of others totalled thousands of pounds.

However, the expenses figures led to the Independent Alliance opposition group calling for the policy to be immediately reviewed.

Coun Steve Carr, a member of the group, asked the authority’s overview scrutiny committee: “Can we have a look at how much councillors are claiming in mileage expenses?

“One councillor has claimed enough over the last two years to drive to the Great Wall of China and back.

“The disparity and the huge discrepancies between different councillors need to be looked at.

“I appreciate some will have duties that take them to schools and visits to people’s homes, but that’s not always the case.

“I wonder how much scrutiny is being done with regards to these claims.”

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Coun Philip Owen, council governance and ethics committee chairman, said: “Scrutiny of travelling expenses falls to the remit of the governance and ethics committee and I’m sure we will be delighted to have a look at this at some point if it is a pressing issue.”

Coun Ben Bradley, council leader and Mansfield MP, said he will “make sure the system is right”.

“All county councillors claim varying amounts of expenses,” he said.

“There are some cabinet members who travel around the county all the time and perhaps others who don’t show up to anything at all and, therefore don’t have many expenses.

“I think we have a pretty robust system in place to try to manage that and if there are any problems within it, we will look at it and change it..”

Nottinghamshire Council to assess if councillors’ expenses system ‘is right’ after nearly £44k claimed