£1.9M FUEL CLAIM BILL FACES CUT

MILEAGE allowance payments of up to £1.06-a-mile for council staff using their cars at work are to be slashed to try to save £790,000 a year.

Documents obtained by The Sentinel show Stoke-on-Trent council officers were paid a total of £1.9 million in just 12 months for covering 3.1 million miles.

Now the authority wants to cut the allowances to just over £1.2 million a year by introducing a flat rate of 40p for all claims.

But finance chiefs are warning the costly system is being used as a perk by council managers to recruit and retain key staff.

The main target is the £505,831 paid out in allowances and lump sum payments last year to essential car users, who travelled just 476,794 miles; equivalent to £1.06 per mile.

The other £1.4 million was paid to casual car users, who made almost 17,000 mileage expense claims and travelled more than 2.5 million miles.

Their reimbursement works out at 56p per mile.

The mileage review report states: "The essential user scheme was based upon status and designation as opposed to actual mileage travelled.

"The average cost per mile for an essential user was £1.06, making the scheme a very costly way of reimbursing staff for travel in their own cars.

"It has been stated that the essential user scheme is used as an incentive for recruitment and retention of staff."

Mileage expenses are banded by engine size, with higher rates for staff driving larger cars.

A casual user with a two-litre engine vehicle can claim 60.1p per mile, compared to a maximum of 42.9p for a one-litre car.

The council's 297 essential car users can claim up to 46.4p per mile, but they also receive a lump sum of between £795 and £1,170 a year, depending on engine size, to compensate for wear and tear.

The report states that the 40p rate is approved by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

But plans to implement the cutbacks in the New Year were stopped by new chief executive John van de Laarschot to allow for more negotiations with staff.

Trade unions are fighting the cuts and say the 40p flat rate would not cover workers' running costs.

Stoke-on-Trent Unison branch secretary Colin Walton, pictured, said: "We are not prepared to allow our members to subsidise the local authority when they use their own cars to do council work.

"The 40p rate would actually be subsidising the council to the tune of about 20p per mile."

He added: "The proposals are still under discussion after the new chief executive asked for more meaningful talks, so we don't know how far the cuts will go."

Workers will find out more about the plans at two consultation events later this month.

Councillor Kieran Clarke, council cabinet member for resources, said: "It is something that needs to be looked at, but there must be a clear distinction made between casual car users and essential car users.

"There is the possibility of having a number of pool cars."