A council spent nearly £60,000 on mineral water in just a year.

Brighton and Hove City Council paid out £59,000 last year on bringing in bottled water and tanks for water coolers - the equivalent of three teachers' wages.

Using tap water would have cost approximately £7,000 and slashed the council's carbon footprint.

The total cost includes £12,000 on bottled mineral water, served at council meetings and functions. That figure does not include meetings at Hove Town Hall, the Brighton Centre and the Learning Development Centre in Hodshrove Lane, Moulsecoomb, which fall under a different budget.

Sustain, the food and health lobby group, has criticised the council for its use of mineral water. Jeanette Longfield, coordinator for Sustain, said: "It is a scandalous waste of money. Ratepayers would be right to be asking questions.

"It is phenomenally bad for the environment at every stage of the process and you have got the plastic at the end to deal with. Brighton and Hove needs to set out their plans rapidly."

The figures emerged following questions from Green councillor Paul Steedman who is calling for councillors and officers to use tap water.

He said: "Bottled water is falling massively out of favour with the public and the council should follow suit. The idea that the taxpayer should be subsidising councillors to drink mineral water is obscene."

Following in the footsteps of the capital's London On Tap campaign, Labour councillors earlier this year urged city council officials and residents to reduce their carbon footprint by cutting down on bottled water.

New Conservative leader, Mary Mears, said the council was bound by the previous administration's contracts, However, she added: "We recognise there is an issue about the cost of water. We are very keen to have a look at reducing the cost of that."

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