Married councillor claims £500 travel expenses a month... after moving in with mistress 160 miles away

Published 20th May 2010

A married councillor who moved 160 miles to set up home with his mistress is claiming £500 a month in expenses to travel back for meetings, it emerged today.

Liberal Democrat John Wilsher, 61, left his wife and constituents in Barnstaple, Devon, to move in with a former college girlfriend in Swansea, south Wales.

He now makes the 325-mile round-trip around four times a month for council meetings - charging the taxpayer 40p a mile.

Cllr Wilsher, a former mayor who sits on North Devon District Council, claims around £130 each time.

His wife, Jane, 58, said he left home before Christmas to attend a college reunion in Wales - and never came back.

She said: ‘After 36 years of marriage, he's left me for an old college girlfriend he last saw 43 years ago.

‘He has walked away from everything he had in Barnstaple and left me to pick up the pieces.

‘Everyone is in total shock - they can't believe it. He has built his reputation on being a Barnstaple boy and has walked away from it.’

Cllr Wilsher was Mayor of Barnstaple from 1998 to 2000 and was chairman of the district council in 2006/07.

The retired primary school headmaster says he intends to continue as a councillor until the May 2011 elections.

He said: ‘There are reasons why I left and those reasons are personal. I moved away in December last year and as anyone who has moved house will tell you, it was an unsettling time.

‘It is fair to say that my attendance at meetings during that time dwindled but I am now in Barnstaple twice a week most weeks.

‘There are a huge number of projects I have initiated I want to see through and finish.

‘Perhaps I'm being a bit selfish, but I just want to see the job finished. I'm not happy with it, but I feel I have so much to offer.

‘I am always available by phone or email and am still playing a full part in the council and intend to do so for the remainder of my tenure, which is less than a year.’

According to council figures, Cllr Wilsher, 61, attended 41 per cent of meetings from April 2009 to 2010.

He attended four out of 14 planning meetings, two out of seven personnel meetings, three out of five staff consultation panel sub-committee meetings and five out of eight full council meetings.

But he called the concerns about his attendance at meetings ‘nonsense’ and said it had only been highlighted to ‘score political points’.

Cllr Des Brailey, leader of the Conservative-led council, said a councillor did not have to live in the area to carry out the role, although he or she must attend once in a sixth-month period.

He said: ‘Councillor Wilsher has not broken any rules by living in Swansea. Can he serve his residents in the appropriate manner from Swansea? That is a question for him and his residents to answer.

‘In my personal view to be able to help and assist the residents of an area a councillor should live in or close to the community.’

Cllr Wilsher will end his 12 years of service when he stands down next April but in the mean time will continue to make the expenses paid journey.

Emma Boon of The Taxpayers' Alliance said: ‘I think it's an enormous extra cost for this journey and it's unreasonable that we should have to pay that.’

A spokesman for the council said last year Cllr John Wilsher only claimed £100.06 in mileage.

But for the month of April this year he claimed £536 in miles.

Source: ' Daily Mail '

View All Nonsense News