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Recently, in the local press and on Radio Cornwall, Cllr Alex Folkes, who is the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Cornwall Council, raised the issue that some senior offices in Cornwall Council had been supplied with some nice Audi cars as part of their job. Particularly he drew attention to the fact that two senior officers in the Fire Service had been bought an Audi A5 and A6 respectively. I thought this issue was worth a closer look.

Interestingly, accordingly to information provided to me, the policy of providing Audi cars was begun in 2008 when the Liberal Democrats were running Cornwall County Council. Of the two specific cars bought for the Fire Chiefs, the first one was purchased in May 2009, one month before the current Council was elected when, and you’ve guessed it, the Liberal Democrats were running the council.  The 2^nd was purchased in August 2009, just a few weeks after the current administration took over. I am sure at this point the order would have been in place for several weeks and I also would not have expected the priority for the new cabinet to have been checking what cars had been ordered for the Fire Officers.

So it would appear that Cllr Folkes is in fact criticising his own party’s policy and management of ‘company’ cars for the Fire Officers and blows a large hole in his assertion that somehow we, the Conservative led administration, have spent money on luxury cars for Fire Chefs whilst having to make savings in our budget. Any inference from him that we have wasted taxpayers money lies firmly at the feet the Liberal Democrat party – but then those of us trying to sort out the mess they left behind at County Hall will not be at all surprised.

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