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Free lunches are being abolished for councillors at two Auckland region authorities as they look to cut costs.
Waitakere City councillors have voted to save $40,000 a year by paying for their own meeting lunches, while their North Shore counterparts will pay $25 a week if they want lunch provided on the job.
On her way to work yesterday, Waitakere deputy finance chairwoman Janet Clews said: "I've my banana in my handbag. Cutting out morning teas and lunches was one of the first things we did during a line-by-line review of budget items ...
There was no argument about it."
Last year, the council provided $40,000 to feed its mayor and 14 councillors.
A suggestion that 15 councillors and the mayor put in $20 a week towards meeting lunches was suggested by North Shore finance committee chairman Grant Gillon in late November.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch and in these tight economic times we need to send a signal to the ratepayers," he said.
On Wednesday, the council adopted a motion from Mayor Andrew Williams to charge councillors $25 a week for lunch.
"I have come from the corporate world where I paid for my daily lunch unless I was someone else's guest and that's what I expect from my council," said Mr Williams.
The proposed budget for catering in the council chamber area was $50,000 - half that of five years ago.
Mr Williams, who styles himself as the "perk-busting mayor", thought the move would save $1100 a year for 16 members of the council and said the lunch bill since June was $22,514.
One of those who voted against the move, Callum Blair, said: "I'm all for being frugal with ratepayers' money. But this $25 won't recover the cost so it's just playing around the edges with a token gesture, a populist thing to put forward at this time."
Councillor Margaret Miles was disappointed the council turned down her suggestions to halve attendance at conferences - expected to cost $61,000 next year - and to save 20 per cent of the civic functions' cost of $56,000.
