COUNCILLORS who were ordered to cut down on their car use have managed to clock up 44,000 more miles on official business than they did last year.
Their total fuel bill soared by more than £29,000 to £138,300 despite a drive to make the local authority greener by curbing energy consumption and emissions.
Official documents reveal that while vehicle use by staff in departments such as housing, social work and education was reduced, car costs for Aberdeenshire’s 68 councillors continued to rise.
A spokesman for Taxpayers Alliance Scotland said last night that the local authority had questions to answer over the increased mileage.
He said: “To retain the trust of taxpayers, the leader of the council should be asking his colleagues to explain why these travel costs are rising so rapidly.
“Only by being completely open about the cost of what they are doing for those who elect them and the reason for these large sums will the council be seen to be working properly for local taxpayers.”
Members drove 308,774 miles while on council business in the last financial year, at a cost to the public purse of £138,292.
This was a significant increase on the 264,862 miles councillors clocked up on local authority duties in 2011-12, when their fuel bill was slightly more than £109,000.
More than 8.8million miles in total were driven by Aberdeenshire Council staff and elected members last year.
This was a reduction of about 600,000 miles on the previous year, with officials being encouraged to car share and hold meetings by video conference as an alternative to hitting the road.
Aberdeenshire Council spent £3.8million on petrol and other car costs in 2012-13. Council leader Jim Gifford said the petrol costs were worth paying to stay well connected with local people.
He said: “We are a big rural council and we have meetings all over the place. I personally do a couple of hundred miles a week.
“It does not take much to rack up the miles and we have done a lot of community engagement events over the past year.
“If the cost of doing these meetings is extra mileage then from my point of view it is a cost worth bearing.”
The figures emerged as the local authority struggles to meet green targets set for public organisations. Energy consumption at council buildings went up 9.88% in 2012-13, with carbon emissions increasing by more than 7%.
The particularly cold winter pushed up the amount of electricity used in schools and other council properties. Its overall fuel bill – for gas, electricity, kerosene and oil – came in at around £11.5million for the year, up £1.5million.