A council has come under fire for using thousands of pounds of public money to defend the 'snortgate' scandal surrounding its mayor.

Dover Town Council paid £6,000 for a PR firm during the year it fielded press enquiries after the video of Mayor Neil Rix snorting an unknown substance in a toilet cubical surfaced.

The story went worldwide when the video was uploaded online but now it has been decided the mayor will carry out another year in office.

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The bill for communications and consultations was more than eight times that of the previous year, £5,991 in 2016/17 compared to £706 for 2015/16.

Now DTC community councillor Keith Sansum has told KentOnline's sister paper the Dover Mercury: “The PR firm should not have been used for this and if Rix needed to defend himself he should have done so himself but not out of taxpayers’ money.

“Sadly this administration has supported him and he has made the decision to stay.”

Neither Cllr Rix nor the PR firm involved, Edwards Harvey, have confirmed whether he should or will reimburse the public purse.

Cllr Sansum says he is not letting the matter go. He will raise the matter of PR expenditure with the town council as an agenda item after the mayor making ceremony of Thursday, May 25.

He added: “I still believe the worldwide bad publicity over the past year will carry on throughout this year and people will lose faith in DTC.”

Labour town councillor Peter Wallace said: “It’s a 700% increase on the previous year and he’s just been made mayor-elect for the new year.

“It is disgraceful how much taxpayers’ money the town council spent on a PR company.”

We contacted Cllr Rix but he declined to comment or say anything beyond the statement prepared by Edwards Harvey.

The mayor should represent the best of Dover and should be acting on behalf of the people
But Labour’s Cllr Peter Wallace thinks Cllr Rix has “failed on both standards”.

He added: “The money should have been spent on doing something good for Dover.

“When you think of how much that money would mean as a donation to the Outreach Shelter or the Soup Kitchen, you realise what a waste it is.”

Edwards Harvey PR & Marketing, of Maidstone, responded in the town council’s name.
It said: “The town council administrative team is small and we do not employ a full-time PR person in the same way as the district council.

“We used to employ a part-time person to handle communications but it is far more cost effective for us to engage experts as and when needed to handle a variety of activities including press inquiries on different topics.

“Outsourcing has saved money and freed up resources for other council business.
“The budget for communications, which was agreed in December 2015 long before Councillor Rix even became mayor, has not been exceeded.

“It is not unusual for communications activity to vary from year to year.”

The Mercury asked Edwards Harvey a series of questions which they have not answered. These include:

• When did Edwards Harvey gain the contract to represent Dover Town Council?
• Can the council justify using so much tax payers’ money on a professional PR firm when it could have answered press inquiries itself?
• How much of the communications budget was spent specifically fielding press enquiries into the “snort” row?
• What other press material did Edwards Harvey deal with on behalf of DTC?