County councillors claimed £1.8m in allowances and expenses last year, figures published by Kent County Council today show.

The overall sum of £1,801,693 is £54,000 less than the taxpayer-funded claims made in 2010-11, reflecting a decision to cut basic allowances every councillor receives by 1.5%.

Of the claims made by the authority's 84 members in 2011-12, the largest sum was for their basic allowance of £12,827 which accounted for £1.07m. This allowance is paid to all elected members.

The second largest sum was for councillors who are additionally paid special responsibility allowances, principally members of the authority's cabinet - the key-decision making body - and committee chairmen.

Allowances for the eight-strong Conservative-run cabinet totalled £224,928, at a rate of £28,116 each. These are due to be cut back by 2.4% next year.

County council leader Paul Carter received £58,240, made up of £12,827 in basic allowance and £43,255 for his role as leader.

Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Trudy Dean received £21,478 in allowances, of which £8,651 was for her role as opposition leader.

As well as allowances, councillors also received £139,912 in expenses, largely to cover transport costs. The bulk was for mileage claims, which accounted for £132,206, an increase in the previous year's figure of £121,117.

The costs for other transport costs, such as train and bus fares, was just under £7,000.

However, 13 councillors claimed no mileage or other transport expenses.

Meanwhile, KCC has also published separate figures detailing how county councillors used the authority's four-strong fleet of chauffeur-driven cars to attend official functions and meetings.

These show that the four cars were used for 2,822 hours in 2011-12 at a cost to the taxpayer of £50,379 - £14,619 less than the previous year.

The principal user was chairman of the council, Cllr Paulina Stockell who accounted for 983 hours, followed by deputy Conservative leader Cllr Alex King, who used them for 799 hours and KCC leader Paul Carter, who used them on council business for 608 hours.

The issue of how the council uses these cars has been under scrutiny. An investigation by auditors found there had been a small number of duplicate claims made by some councillors who had used the cars but had, at the same time, had claimed mileage expenses for their own vehicles.

These were put down to administrative mistakes by the council and a total of about £400 was repaid for mistaken claims.

In a statement, KCC deputy leader Cllr Alex King said: "The council is legally required to publish details of all allowances and expenses received by its 84 members for each year.

"This does not reflect revised allowances which relate to new governance arrangements, approved by the county council in March. These revised allowances include a 2.35% reduction in special responsibility allowances to members. This is on top of the reductions in the cost of allowances agreed by the council in 2011."