The Local Government Ombudsman has confirmed to me that my complaint about the clothing allowance being provided to Labour councillors for the last thirty years is being fully investigated.

The £12860 allowance, paid to the Chair and Vice Chair, which for thirty years have been Labour councillors is an utter disgrace.

The Chair already gets £13300 for being a councillor, plus £6650 for being Chair, so why on earth they then need £12860 clothing allowance is beyond me.

The Labour vice chair said she can’t do the job in tatty clothes. I wonder how many residents in County Durham get paid to go out and buy thousands of pounds of clothes. Labour in this county are utterly out of touch with the electorate, and I hope tomorrow that this shows in the way people vote in the LOCAL election.

Please support Amanda, Mamie and I in the election tomorrow, and if you don’t live in our area, please support your local Lib Dem councillor.

We have consistently  tried to make county hall more accountable and to make sure that the money the council has is spent more wisely.

Labour think nothing of wasting money and mismanaging things. They sold a stately home for £241,000 when they were offered £1.5m for it. They refused to cut excessive councillor allowances to help protect the Citizens Advice Bureau funding, and they refused to bring down the cost of 20 million miles worth of mileage claims every year by Durham County Council.

This is the tip of the iceberg. With every week that passes more examples of waste are found. We must have more non-Labour councillors on this authority if it is to ever change, and the best way to get that change is to vote Lib Dem tomorrow.