Brighton and Hove City Council plans to set new spending rules on corporate credit cards after its chief executive ran up a £5,000 wining-and-dining bill.

Council leader Ken Bodfish has agreed to meet leaders of the city's political parties to discuss drawing up guidelines on acceptable spending for corporate dinners and other social meetings.

An investigation by The Argus disclosed on Tuesday how the city council's chief executive David Panter spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money treating politicians and visitors to meals out.

In one outing, £381 was spent on a meal for seven at The Grand hotel.

Although Coun Bodfish has leapt to the defence of Mr Panter, he said: "Because this is an issue of such public interest, we have decided to short circuit the usual process and take this issue to the leaders' group.

"I will be asking my colleagues from other parties to discuss the establishment of a protocol regarding the use of the chief executive's corporate credit card.

"What that will enable us to do is ask for information from other public bodies and make comparisons to ascertain what a reasonable level of expenditure is."

The need for a protocol was suggested by Liberal Democrat leader Paul Elgood yesterday as an alternative to scrapping the cards altogether.

He said: "I think most residents are shocked by the extent and nature of this expenditure. A number of the hotels and restaurants Mr Panter visited seem quite expensive and clearly cheaper options could have been found.

"Mr Bodfish's announcement is very welcome. There is little justification for the use of these cards at all."

All council spending is checked by the chief finance officer and the Government's district auditor, who have raised no queries about credit card expenditure.

Conservative leader Brian Oxley is on holiday but fellow councillor Denise Cobb was keen to get a closer look at Mr Panter's receipts from last year.

She said: "A breakdown of how the money was spent will help us identify whether or not it was reasonable."

Green convener Keith Taylor said: "Councillors are elected to oversee a huge budget. It is up to us to decide if money is being spent in a reasonable way."

Mr Panter declined to comment but a council spokesman said: "All council spending is checked by the district auditor.

"Mr Panter is unlikely to have a problem with any guidelines. It would certainly prevent him being singled out of all the councils in Sussex for this kind of attention."

Thursday September 4, 2003