THE former mayor of Poole said the council needed to spend every penny wisely and spending £90,000 on two new cars was “excessive”.

The funding was included in BCP Council’s long-term fleet management plan, and if approved would see £90,000 spent on two cars for mayoral use.

And Marion Le Poidevin, former mayor for Poole, with current mayor Julie Bagwell and future mayor Tony Trent have opposed the plans, saying they were “horrified”.

Cllr Le Poidevin said: “I have been mayor for two years, the last year with very little activity.

“In my experience, we really do not need a car of that price, that quality, that size.

“The majority of journeys are in BCP and you are not doing many miles.

“The money can go towards the general budget, it could still be in the fleet replacement budget.

“Mayors don’t need to turn up in a limo, I have been driving myself for the last year.

“There is an argument for that, I know there are difficulties though like finding places, locating them and parking.”

The council has more than 600 vehicles, a fleet, its cabinet member for transport councillor Mike Greene said, was “large and very thirsty”, using a combined 1.3 million litres of fuel each year.

Cllr Le Poidevin continued: “It gives the wrong impression to residents, especially in these times when we need to spend every penny wisely.

“I am sure we can find a good quality, smaller, cheaper car, preferably electric which would be adequate.

“We want something cost effective.”

When the funding was included in the council’s long-term fleet management plan, former leader of BCP Council, Vikki Slade, described it as “totally unacceptable”.

She said: “I was absolutely mortified see in the proposal for two new mayoral cars.

“It’s totally unacceptable to me that we’re looking to buy two new cars when we have a fleet of cars that we could be using.”

She called for the cabinet to “rethink” the idea and was backed by the new mayor of Bournemouth, councillor Dave Kelsey, who said new vehicles were not yet needed and instead called for existing ones to be shared between mayors.