A council has become one of the first in the country to publish a list of payments on its website.

Mid Sussex District Council now lists a monthly breakdown of payments of £500 or more.

Last month it paid out more than £6 million to organisations including Sussex Police and other local authorities.

Sussex Police Authority received two payments, one of £762,000, which was part of the July council tax precept collected from Mid Sussex residents. Another payment of £12,750 was made for CCTV rental and transmission.

Many of the payments are for between £500 and £3,000 but there are larger payments to Serco Limited of £246,650, plus another of £1,900, for the collection of domestic refuse and street cleaning and the hire of polling screens and booths for the European and county council elections respectively.

The council also paid West Sussex County Council £6,417,000 in council tax for the month of July, and contributed £6,400 to the West Sussex County Council Arts Partnership for the year.

It also paid Kent County Council £30,000 for gas and electricity in a partnership arrangement which works out cheaper for both councils.

Councillor Jonathan Ash-Edwards, cabinet member for finance and service delivery, said: "We wanted to go further and allow residents to see, line by line, exactly how public money is being used to deliver the improving front-line services required by Mid Sussex residents."

A council spokesman added: “The money we spend comes from three different sources - a lump sum which we get from central government each year, council tax and the revenue we generate from paid through services such as leisure centres, for example.”

Residents can see the council's spending records at www.midsussex.gov.uk/spending.

Any questions about the figures can be emailed to spending@midsussex.gov.uk.