Taxpayers in Bristol have been footing the bill for council staff to stay in expensive hotels, eat at posh restaurants and buy designer clothes.

Almost £680,000 was spent on on fast food, cinema trips, iTunes downloads and orders from online retailer Amazon.

Figures obtained under Freedom of Information rules show that in 2014, an average of £1,860 a day was spent on council procurement cards, which are used by council workers to pay for expenses like travel, office supplies and catering.

Reported by the Western Daily Press. You can read the full story here. 

I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.