Nottinghamshire councillors spent over £1,000 using phones abroad

A new cap has had to be introduced after some Nottinghamshire councillors spent hundreds using their work phone on holiday

Nottinghamshire county councillors spent over £1,000 last year using their work phones abroad and one of them says he will not apologise for "working so hard." The Conservative-led authority says many elected members are willing to continue council business whilst they are holidaying abroad.

Yet it means extra charges are being unwittingly racked up by councillors, including a £280.76 bill for Councillor Nigel Turner and a £267.66 bill for Councillor Philip Owen. Yet the highest charge was for Councillor Francis Purdue-Horan, the independent councillor for Bingham East, who incurred £371.70 of out of contract charges between April 2023 and the end of March this year.

Councillor Purdue-Horan said: "The first I knew of this bill was when it was it was published in the papers of the governance and ethics committee. The phone is key to my work representing residents and I will never apologise for working so hard.

"That said, I intermittently checked my emails when away earlier this year and suspect that is what the additional charges are for. I will be paying the extra charges back, as there was no intention to go over the standard allowance." As well as Councillor Purdue-Horan, Councillor Glynn Gilfoyle and Councillor Penny Gowland have indicated that they will pay their charges back, with those two councillors incurring bills of £5.70 and £8 respectively.

A new county council report on the matter says: "At previous meetings, the committee has recognised the ongoing issue of out of contract charges for ICT equipment. This mainly related to members' willingness to continue to conduct council business whilst holidaying abroad.

"As agreed by the committee, members were issued with further guidance but despite members' best efforts, such charges are on occasions still being unknowingly incurred, with larger amounts resulting from maritime internet charges. The new contract for the provision of smartphones to officers and members includes an agreement that 'roaming' network capability will not ordinarily be available.

"Should such capability be essential for a member in order that they can conduct county council business whilst abroad, then that additional functionality will need to be requested from ICT on a temporary and case by case basis. Once any such request is approved by ICT, it is proposed that a maximum data usage cap of £50 be set."