Bradford Council spent £3,500 on Christmas dinner

The council is now reviewing the cost it spends on refreshments

The leader of Bradford Council has said it was "ridiculous" that more than £3,500 was spent on a Christmas dinner for councillors and officers.

It has emerged the authority used the cash for a two-course meal last December at a meeting of up to 90 councillors and 20 officers.

Ian Greenwood, who was not council leader at the time, said it was wrong given the economic climate.

He said the council would be reviewing the cash it spent on refreshments.

Mr Greenwood, Labour leader of the council, said: "It's clearly ridiculous in the current circumstances that we spent that sort of money on a council tea.

"Obviously people come in at 4pm to a council meeting and they deserve to have something to eat but in the current circumstances particularly it's completely out with what's reasonable."

Figures show the authority spent a total of £32,380 in the last financial year on refreshments, with £3,568 of that accounting for the Christmas dinner.

At the time the council was a Conservative administration.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, leader of the council's Tory group, said: "It was a normal order that had gone in as far as I can remember, I don't know the details of how it happened but however it happened I have come to the point where I think council teas are a thing of the past."