The borough council's been strongly criticised for spending £1575 on a one-day online training session for the Mayor on chairing council meetings.

The news came to light as more long-serving council employees were made redundant this month.

OWL Group Chairman, Cllr Adrian Owens said, “The Mayor is an experienced councillor and a former Chairman of Lancashire County Council. He has to chair about 6 meetings this year. It is indefensible to spend £1575 of council taxpayers’ money on a one-day online training course on how to chair meetings. An internal refresher course including use of Skype should have been sufficient.

“In any circumstance this largesse could not be justified, but in the current situation it is outrageous. The council is still reducing its staff numbers to balance the books with more staff leaving on redundancy this month while leisure centre staff face an uncertain future and possible shorter hours.

"In the wider community, many residents are fearful for their job security or having to tighten their belts. The council needs to ask every time it writes a purchase order – is this spending justified?”


* The cost was reported to the Member Development Commission on Wednesday 30^th September

https://democracy.westlancs.gov.uk/d...%20Present.pdf