Cheshire West and Chester Council spent more than £9,000 of taxpayers’ money hiring out its own town hall.

The shock revelation was contained in a Freedom of Information response to The Chronicle concerning how much CWaC paid to hold last summer’s Local Plan inquiry at Chester Town Hall which is now managed by Chester Race Company in a five-year deal.

CWaC spent £9,208 hiring rooms in the civic building over 13 days, which works out at £708.33 per day, but insists this ‘offered easily the best price in the area’.

Reported by the Chester Chronicle. 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.