Beverley Town Council put aside £35,000 for unpaid gas bill

Beverley Town Council runs local services in the East Yorkshire market town

A council which found it had not paid its gas bills for 17 years has put aside £35,000 to clear any debt.

Beverley Town Council discovered it did not have a deal with an energy supplier, despite using gas in its offices since 2004.

Lib Dem councillor Denis Healy said the authority was still waiting to hear what its final bill would be.

He added that it was "highly unlikely" the full £35,000 set aside would be needed.

The East Yorkshire council discovered the oversight when a boiler broke down in November at its offices in Well Lane.

Mr Healy told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the council was "not going to be doing a whip round asking the people of Beverley to pay our gas bill".

"As far as the back payments go we're in the hands of Northern Gas Networks," he said.

"The £35,000 is unspent money the council's been able to carry over, there's no way I'm expecting the final bill to be anywhere near that.

"It was an underspend from previously and after we've settled this we'll spend what's left of it on local services and projects in the town."

The oversight was discovered when a boiler broke down at the council's offices in Well Lane, Beverley

He added that Northern Gas Networks was still to confirm whether Ofgem rules limiting back billing to no more than 12 months applied in the council's case.

An internal investigation into how the error occurred is continuing.

Mr Healy said the situation was "completely unacceptable".

"The public rightly want answers about this and as elected councillors we have a responsibility to look into this and ultimately do the right thing," he added.

The council has a budget of just over £1m and runs local services in the market town, such as allotments, parks and CCTV systems.