Cllr Alex King was warned to stop using chauffeur-driven cars

by political editor Paul Francis

The deputy leader of Kent County Council was warned to stop using chauffeur-driven cars and taxis for travelling to and from his home to County Hall by the authority’s most senior lawyer, it has emerged.

Cllr Alex King was told last October he should no longer use the authority’s chauffeured cars or private taxis because of the attention the issue was attracting from the Press.

He was also told there was a question mark over whether or not his use of taxis complied with the council’s own rules.

The revelation comes as KCC awaits the findings of a potentially embarassing investigation by auditors into allegations of duplicate and unlwaful expenses claims by councillors.

The council’s monitoring officer, Geoff Wild, wrote to Mr King in October after the authority’s most senior officers held a top-level meeting to discuss the issue.

The council’s own auditors had at that stage made KCC aware it was investigating a complaint from a member of the public about alleged duplicate and unlawful travel expenses claims.

In an email to Mr King following that meeting, Mr Wild - who is responsible for ensuring members act lawfully and within the code of condcut - said: "It was agreed that I should write to advise you that in the light of this level of scrutiny and in the absence of there being no specific provision in the council’s policy on county cars, you should no longer arrange for the council to provide you with taxis for journeys between your home and County Hall."

The email goes on to warn the use of KCC’s chauffeur-driven cars and private taxis could "constitute a taxable benefit" although that "will ultimately be a matter for you to determine direct with HMRC".

Mr Wild said while the use of taxis for travel to and from councillors’ homes is "less than clear", the authority’s policy was "members are requested not to use chauffeur-driven cars for normal home to County Hall journeys except in special circumstances", such as illness or the lack of a car or access to public transport.

Mr King, who lives in Hawkhurst, has previously said he used taxis and chauffeur-driven cars up to 2009 partly because of a medical condition that made driving at night difficult. However, he was able to resume driving in June of that year.

Official figures released by KCC last year showed Cllr King was the second highest user of the authority’s four-strong fleet of chauffeured cars.

Of the £65,000 costs associated with maintaining and operating the fleet, Mr King accounted for £8,500. The top user was the then chairman of KCC Cllr Bill Hayton, who accounted for £12,235 followed by the council leader Paul Carter, who accounted for £6,480.

About half the £65,000 was for chauffeurs’ salaries while fuel costs were £9,222 and the London congestion charge was £833.

Separate figures released by KCC last year showed Cllr King had run up a bill for nearly £1,900 using taxis to get about on council business.

However, a draft version of members’ claims for KCC cars and taxis placed included significantly higher figures. That draft version, which was not published, incorporated a figure of £19,541 for Cllr King.

The KM Group invited Mr King, who received £43,310 in allowances and expenses last year, to comment but he said he was unable to because of the ongoing auditors’ investigation.

KCC leader Cllr Paul Carter, pictured left, said he accepted the rules needed some clarification, but said members should be entitled to use taxis in certain circumstances, such as members’ having medical conditions.

It was acknowledged by all councils there was a "grey area" in the HRMC’s guidance on travel by councillors and KCC was not alone in being asked by tax officials about travel expenses, he added.

"It may be that there are anomalies," he said. "We might need to adjust [the rules] in a pragmatic way but we have to apply a level of reasonableness."

He denied KCC had been lax in applying its own rules. "We have always played this in an open way. There may have been some minor anomalies but when you look at the quantum of [travel] claims, it represents a very small percentage."

The KM Group recently revealed how tax officials were examining a complaint the county council should have been paying tax on councillors’ travel expenses.

As part of the investigation, officials from HMRC have asked county councillors to detail the extent to which they work from home seeing constituents, as under current rules claims are only tax deductible if they do so on a regular basis.

Guidance on whether or not a home can be classed as a place of work is ambiguous.

The probe is related to the on-going auditors inquiry into related complaints concerning duplicate expenses claims.

KCC’s concern about Mr King’s use of taxis appears to be linked to the fact that even if only one councillor used them for private purposes, that would render the entire fleet a taxable benefit for anyone who used them.