ATTEMPTS by Chudleigh Town Council to discover how much Devon County Council spent on entertaining town and parish councillors at a pub bash before Christmas have so far remained corked. Cllr Geoff Day, chairman of the council's footpaths committee, was invited to the event, and wanted to know the cost. But in a reply to Monday's monthly town council meeting, the county maintained that to extract the information would cost £450 and therefore it was not obliged to supply the answer. Cllr Day said he was concerned the county did not know how much it was spending on corporate entertainment. Cllr Doug Laing asked just how much was the county spending on jollies. He said: 'We serve on the council voluntarily and we do not expect payment. This was a jolly for the boys. 'They say it will cost £450 for the information. Why is corporate entertainment not kept on a separate spread sheet, so that they would know what they are spending? 'We also heard that £76,000 was spent on bottled water during the last financial year. 'South West Water says that the quality of its water is as good as anything you get out of a bottle, so why are they spending £76,000 of tax payers' money on water, for goodness sake?' He said purse strings had to be pulled in as shown by Teignbridge Council, while Chudleigh Town Council had not raised its precept for two years. He told the area's county council representative, Cllr Jeremy Brooks – who promised that he would try to obtain the corporate entertainment figures – that it was no criticism of him. If he is not successful, Cllr Day will be tabling a question at the county's executive meeting next month. Meanwhile, the council agreed to write to the county about the bottled water.
