SWINDON taxpayers are forking out almost £80,000 a year for political assistants working for the two main parties on the council.

The council employs two political assistants, one each for Labour and the Conservatives, with a total budget for them of £78,700.

The figures came to light following a Freedom of Information Act request by the Adver. It shows that the budget for them has risen by £1,400 over the past two years.

None of Swindon’s neighbouring authorities of a similar size employs political assistants – only Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire do and the latter will consider getting rid of them at a meeting later this month.

The political parties are not allowed to use tax payers’ money to pay for ‘away days’ for councillors to thrash out policy.

But conversely they are allowed to pay for political assistants using council funds.

Emma Boon, from the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “Taxpayers are already paying for councillors, they shouldn’t have to pay twice and fund these political assistants too.

“They are giving policy advice and therefore much of their work amounts to taxpayer funded politics. At a time when local councils should be cutting spending, non-frontline roles like this should be amongst the first to get the axe.”

But leader of the council, Coun Rod Bluh, said they did valuable work and getting rid of them would not save any money.

“It’s a judgement call and it is something we have talked about but in reality it wouldn’t change very much,” he said.

He said if they got rid of their political assistant they would still need a Cabinet support officer to do similar work so they would still have to employ a member of staff.

The leader of the Labour group on Swindon Council said political assistants were used by many councils. Coun Derique Montaut said: “Political assistants are paid solely to work in the council’s interests and it is important for the public to know that these members of staff are not allowed to do political campaigning and jobs other than in the interests of the council and Swindon council tax payers.

“The type of benefits these staff officers give to the council include providing a valuable link between Swindon’s councillors and the officer corps in the council, making sure councillors are as informed as possible when taking important votes and making sure that any constituents’ requests to political group leaders are dealt with as swiftly as possible.”

The Liberal Democrats, who do not have a political assistant, said many councils simply call political assistants by a different name to avoid controversy.

Coun Dave Wood said: “One thing you can say for Swindon is that it is upfront.”