Shropshire Council starts publishing expenses claims early
Sunday 31st October 2010, 6:00PM GMT.
Shropshire Council has started publishing all expenditure more than £500 on its website – two months ahead of schedule.
The Government is asking all councils to make spending figures open to the public from the start of next year.
However, Shropshire Council chose to start publishing its figures sooner than most.
Spreadsheets are now on the council’s website showing the payments made to individuals and companies more than £500.
The first batch of figures relate to August 2010 and amount to just more than £30 million from 6,164 transactions.
There are a huge variety of payments on the list, from payments for catering supplies to grants for local firms.
The data is in a variety of formats designed to allow people to analyse and share the statistics as freely as possible.
The aim is to encourage more public scrutiny over council spending, and Shropshire Council’s leader, Keith Barrow, has welcomed the initiative.
“I made a pledge that we would publish all our spending over £500 and we have delivered on that,” he said.
“I’ve been through the list myself and it demonstrates the huge breadth of services the council provides, as well as the valuable business it gives to the local economy.”
Councillor Barrow added: “It’s important that councils are as open as possible about what they spend people’s hard-earned council tax on, and I’m pleased we are ahead of the game by publishing these figures before many other councils.”
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