Lincolnshire County Councillors get their snouts in the trough

bangers and mash

Lincolnshire County Councillors have quite literally got their snouts well and truly stuck in the trough.

To feed these councillors lunch when they have a meeting costs just over £17 a head for a two course lunch, a year ago it was over £18 a head.

How, how can it possibly cost this much when eating at the County Restaurant? They could go into town and eat at a good restaurant for less.

Main course at the County Restaurant costs during the week £3-30 for the dearer option, £2-80 for the cheaper option. For example sausage and mash with cabbage £3-30, liver and onions with cabbage and mash £3-30.

On a Wednesday, roast lunch £4-50. For a meal deal, roast plus hot dessert £5-50.

For dessert, a yoghurt 50p. On a Wednesday a hot sweet is available at £1-50. A hot sweet used to be available every day.

During the winter, soup at £1-20 (plus 50p for a bread roll) is available as a starter.

The quality of the meals varies, but used to be very good, of late standards have slipped.

Absolutely no way does this come to £17 or £18 a head.

There is absolutely no reason the councillors cannot queue up with their tray same as everyone else, other than their own self-inflated importance. But please do not all join the queue at the same time and delay others as people value their lunch break.

Typical meals

• sausage and mash
• turkey and leak pie

For the snouts in the trough Lincolnshire County Council has a £22,000 catering bill for lunches during full council meetings. This at a time of savage spending cuts across the county. This at a time when the poorest paid council workers have to rely on tax credits and other handouts like food banks.

Lincolnshire County Council has admitted spending almost £22,000 on lunches for councillors attending meetings since 2009. A total of £21,940 was spent catering for the 77 councillors at 17 full council meetings. That works out an average of £16.76 per head. Here is a breakdown of the figures:

• 2009-2010: £6942.77 for 5 meetings = £18.04 per head
• 2010-2011: £6235.79 for 5 meetings = £16.19 per head
• 2011-2012: £4832.43 for 4 meetings = £15.69 per head
• 2012-2013(so far): £3929.44 for 3 meetings = £17.01 per head
• TOTAL SINCE 2009: £21,940.43 for 17 meetings = £16.76 per head

Maybe the councillors should sit down and eat what schoolchildren are served for lunch, if Scotland is anything to go by, not very good, as shown by Martha Payne on her food blog NeverSeconds, maybe they would like to try what was served up early May 2012.

• Council admits £22k lunch bill

Tags: County Restaurant, Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire Councillors get their snouts in the trough, Lincolnshire County Council