"A RIDICULOUS waste" is how a councillor has described £10,000 spent by Borough of Poole to turn a small meeting room into a video conferencing suite.

Philip Eades has blasted the expenditure by the cash-strapped council, which includes £5,937 for the 'video conferencing solution' and £3,729 to clear, refurbish and furnish the diminutive Civic Centre room, which is just big enough for a table and eight chairs.

Liberal Democrat councillor Philip Eades told the Echo: "Following on from the leader's £1K new office refurbishment in the Civic Centre last year it displays a stunningly warped sense of priorities of the Tory leadership in Poole – nearly £10,000 of council taxpayers' money spent on a tiny office in the Civic Centre, whilst axing the mobile library, ramping up car parking charges all over the Borough including at Poole’s precious public open spaces, cutting lifeline bus services, and yet still spending £40,000 on a new Mayoral limousine.

"It just seems to me an astonishing amount of money to spend on a tiny video conferencing room when money is supposed to be so tight. I question how much it's needed. It just think it's an unnecessary, ridiculous waste of money."

Dia Chakravarty, political director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Local residents will be left wondering how an apparently cash-strapped council can possibly consider this to be good value for taxpayers' money. Hard-pressed families expect their taxes to pay for essential services, not to be squandered on plush offices." 

Katie Lacey, head of ICT and customer services, Borough of Poole, said the project was part of "ongoing work by the council to evaluate our services, find more efficient ways of working and using resources."

She added: "This corporate wide resource can be used in a number of ways but is predominantly intended to improve joint working with colleagues and other contacts located outside of the Civic Centre.

"It will offer the council savings in terms of time, money and carbon emissions spent travelling some distance to meetings around the county and further afield such as London and Bristol.

“The facility can be used for demos, meetings and as an office space. In addition, as the equipment is mobile it can be used in other rooms around the building and presents the organisation with an opportunity to explore ways of reaching residents, such as the streaming of meetings."

She said work including training staff and developing a user guide was still ongoing, but added: "We are confident this facility will significantly benefit staff and members across the organisation once fully launched, and outweigh the cost of the initial investment in the long term.”