Four councils in Kent have been accused of paying more than they need for staff mileage allowances that cost the public purse hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The four - Medway, Shepway, Tonbridge and Malling and Ashford - all pay up to 65p per mile when official HMRC guidance suggests the appropriate rate should be 45p.

The councils said the figures represented only part of the picture and lower allowances were paid to staff depending on their job and size of the engine.

A survey of all councils in the UK was carried out by the Taxpayers' Alliance.

Medway council came out as having the highest bill in Kent at £699,020 in 2016-17 although that was less than the previous year when it spent £727,284.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance says councils who charged more than they had to were wasting money and ignoring government advice to rein in their rates.

John O'Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Driving is extremely expensive in Britain thanks to sky-high rates of fuel duty and vehicle excise duty.

"But there's no excuse for councils to pay more than HMRC's approved rate for mileage.

"It's simply not credible for local authorities to plead poverty and raise council tax while paying over the odds for basic expenses, especially when the government has been telling them to rein in these payments for the past five years.

"Councils must continue to root out wasteful spending like this so that they can deliver tax cuts for hard-pressed residents."

The overall bill across all Kent councils - excluding Maidstone and KCC who did not provide figures - was £1,552,490 in 2015-16, but lower the following year when it amounted to £1,390,600.

Only one council paid substantially less: Thanet council pays a rate of 19p per mile but was still left with having to pay staff car mileage totalling £107,717 in 2016-17.

And the figures reveal that Ashford council paid staff £14,460 in 2016-17 - the second lowest sum.

Across all councils, £223m was paid in mileage in 2016-17 compared to £231m in 2015-16.

Councils paying a higher rate were approached for comment but two had not yet provided a response.

WHAT COUNCILS SAID:

Ashford:

"We only pay 65p per mile to employees who are classed as casual users and have a 1200cc engine size; lower mileage rates apply to smaller vehicles: 46.9p per mile and 52.2p per mile.

"It is important to note that this rate only applies to employee who are not essential car users.

"In other words, only those employees who don't typically drive as part of their jobs but have to drive somewhere for exceptional reasons.

"We do, however, follow the HMRC's advisory fuel rate for company car users for our employees who are essential car users."

Shepway Council:

“We currently pay mileage allowances of between 18p and 65p per mile.

"The rate is dependent on how the staff member uses their car and its engine capacity.

"We have three schemes for casual users, essential users and Cash Alternative.

"Employees are assigned to a scheme depending on the type of work they do and the requirement to use their car for that work. Not all staff can claim a mileage allowance.

"The 65p rate was only paid to casual users driving a car that was 1200cc or higher."

Those with smaller engines capacity, or who received an Essential User or Cash Alternative car allowance, would get less, the council said.

“We are currently reviewing mileage rates and the HMRC 'approved rate' is one of the factors we will take into account, as it has an impact on the tax payable by staff," it added.