I REALLY try not to comment so regularly on the shenanigans of Tory councillors at Cheshire East but they just can’t help themselves.

Given half a dozen options on any decision – five of which appear quite reasonable – you can bet your life they will choose the one that paints them in the worst possible light.

Having spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ money investigating top executives, who they themselves selected, you would have thought they might show a little humility.

Residents were even made to foot the bill of £152,000 for a consultant to show them how to be civil to their own staff, not to mention the colossal losses sustained by in-house IT company CoSocius, the hugely costly Lyme Green fiasco plus a £450,000 consultant’s report that was significantly redacted to prevent those who paid for it (ie taxpayers) learning what really happened.

This is a council forcing its residents to drive around in the dark because they can’t afford to turn on the streetlights.

So what do they do? What would you do?

What would any sensible person do to regain credibility?

They lease one of the most prestigious limousines on the planet for the mayor at a cost of £68,000 over three years.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance sent FOI requests to councils across the UK, and found CEC was one of just three to lease a Bentley Flying Spur – along with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in London.

How in God’s name did they make that decision knowing the vast amount of taxpayers’ money they were already squandering?

According to the FOI response, 40 per cent of councils didn’t lease or buy any cars for their civic leaders during that period.

So what made CEC believe they should?

Was it arrogance or ignorance?

You decide.

By Vic Barlow