BRADFORD Council has spent over £23,000 in the past three years providing a BMW to take the Lord Mayor to public engagements.

The BMW 730d, which the council does not own, was leased out at a cost of £10,871 from March 2015 to April 2018.

The taxpayer also had to pay £6,852 in fuel and £5,496 in maintenance costs for the car in that period.

The car is valued at around £63,040, and the figures have led to criticism from the TaxPayers' Alliance. But Bradford Council’s leader has hit back, accusing them of “petty council-bashing.”

In the same period Calderdale Council spent £15,298 on its two Mayors’ cars, both Skoda Superbs. The bulk of the cost went to leasing the vehicles.

Kirklees Council spent £24,465 on the two Volvo S80s, with almost £19,000 spent on maintaining the two cars over three years.

Leeds City Council spent £14,027 on fuel and maintenance of its Jaguar XJ, which it purchased in 2013 as a replacement for its two ageing mayoral limousines.

The figures were revealed by the TaxPayers' Alliance, which carried out freedom of information requests on every council in the UK.

In total, 207 local authorities spent £4,513,607 on vehicles for mayors, lord mayors, lord provosts, chairmen and women. This includes fuel, maintenance, tax and other associated costs. The average spend for councils was £21,804.

The councils with the flashiest cars were Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East and Kensington and Chelsea, which each own a Bentley Continental Flying Spur, valued at over £132,000.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are tired of hearing local authorities say they have no money left when there are still instances of excessive spending. Some travel will of course be necessary to conduct duties but families who struggle to pay their council tax bill will roll their eyes at the thought of their hard-earned money being spent on Bentleys and Jaguars for politicians to attend functions.

“40 per cent of councils didn’t lease or buy cars, so all other local authorities should follow that example and encourage civic leaders to use cheaper forms of transport.

“Every penny wasted on excessive travel expenses is money that could be going towards social care or bin collections.”

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, said: “It’s the kind of petty council-bashing we have come to expect from the TaxPayers’ Alliance who are in denial about the escalating demand on adult and children’s social care at a time when the Government are taking away all grant funding for local councils.

“This is the real reason all councils across the country are under financial pressure. Spending on adults and children’s services now makes up over 50 per cent of council tax payers’ money, that’s £195 million a year. On the other hand the Lord Mayor’s car costs us £149 a week.

“The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress attend hundreds of community events a year and raise tens of thousands of pounds for local charities and good causes. As Bradford is one of the largest authorities in the country, both in geography and population, the role would not be possible if reliance had to be placed on public transport in order for the Lord Mayor to get to all his various civic engagements in one day.

“The Lord Mayor’s civic car is leased at very preferential below market rate cost following stringent bench-marking and cost purchase versus lease analysis. The cost of the lease over the last three years equates to around £149 per week which the council believes represents good value in comparison to other methods of transport including taxis which would likely be more expensive. ”